tter be
told the rest another time.

"I think you had better rest now, Judge," he counseled. The judge
consigned the "rest" idea to a place where, according to tradition,
there is very little of it.

"I want you to hear this," he snapped. "Don't bother me, but listen....
Where was I?... Oh, yes.... Well, Lobelia and her husband went away, to
Europe again. They have been there ever since, living in Italy. Egbert
finds the climate there agrees with him, I suppose---- Humph!... I have
had letters from Lobelia. The later ones were shorter and not
encouraging. She wrote that she wasn't well and the doctors didn't seem
to help her much. After two or three of these letters I wrote one,
myself--to the American consul at Florence. He is the son of a good
friend of mine. I explained the situation and asked him to find out just
what ailed her and what the prospects were. His reply explained things.
Poor Lobelia is in my position--except that my age entitles me to be
there and hers doesn't; she has an incurable disease and she is likely
to die at any time. No hope for her. And now, it seems she has found it
out. About a month ago I had another letter from her.... Humph!... Wait
a minute, Cap'n. Give me that glass again, will you. Sorry to be such a
condemned nuisance--particularly to other people.... Wait! Hold on! When
I've finished you can talk. Hear the rest of it first.

"Lobelia's latest--last, I shouldn't wonder--letter was a sad sort of a
thing. I'm a tough old fellow, but I declare I'm sorry for that poor
woman. Fool to marry Phillips? Of course she was, but most of us are
fools, some time or other. And, if I don't miss my guess, she has
repented of her foolishness many times and all the time. She wrote me
she knew she was going to die. And she said---- But here is the letter.
Read it, that page of it."

He fumbled among the papers and books on the table beside him, selected
a sheet of paper, covered with closely written lines, and extended it in
a shaking hand to his caller.

"That explains things a little," he said. "It's illuminating. Read it."

Captain Sears read.... "And so I am _very_ anxious, dear Judge Knowles,
whatever else happens, that the Fair Harbor shall always be as it is, a
home for sisters and widows and daughters of men who went down to the
sea in ships, as father did. I know he would have liked it. And
_please_, after I'm gone, don't let it be sold or given up, or anything
like that. I am asking th