weak, he had never liked Phillips,
had always distrusted and suspected him, and might he not have fancied
unhappiness when there was none?

The letter said nothing concerning its writer's plans. It told of Mrs.
Phillips' death, her burial at Florence, and of the widower's grief. The
only hint, or possible hint, concerning a visit to Bayport was contained
in one line, "When I see you I can tell you more."

The captain puzzled over the letter a good deal. He showed it to
Elizabeth. He found that Judge Knowles had not discussed Egbert with her
at all. To her the ex-singing teacher was little more than a name; she
remembered him, but nothing in particular concerning him. She thought
the letter a very beautiful one--very sad, of course, but beautiful.
Plainly she did not have the feeling which Sears had, but which he was
inclined to think might be fathered by prejudice that it was a trifle
too beautiful, that its beauty was that of a painting by a master, each
stroke carefully touched in at exactly the right place for effect.

There was no demand for money in it, no hint at straitened
circumstances; so why should there be any striving for effect? He gave
it up. If the much talked of Egbert was what Judge Knowles had declared
him to be, then neither the judge nor any one else had exaggerated his
smoothness.

Emmeline Tidditt, for so many years the Knowles housekeeper, made one
remark which contained possible food for thought.

"So he buried her over there amongst them foreigners, did he?" observed
Emmeline. "That seems kind of funny. When she and him was visitin' here
the last time she told me herself--and he was standin' right alongside
and heard her--that when she died she wanted to be fetched back here to
Bayport and buried in the Orthodox cemetery alongside her father and
mother and all her folks. Said, dead or alive, it wasn't really home for
her anywheres else. She must have changed her mind since, though, I
cal'late."

Bayport talked a good deal about Lobelia Phillips and what would become
of the Fair Harbor now that its founder and patroness was dead. It was
surmised, of course, that Mrs. Phillips had provided for her pet
institution in her will, but that will had not yet been offered for
probate. Neither had the will of Judge Knowles, for that matter. Lawyer
Bradley, over at Orham, the attorney with whom George Kent was reading
law, was known to be the judge's executor. And Judge Knowles and Mr.
Bradley were