, isn't she,
captain--intimated to me that your position was somewhat--ah--general.
You exercise a sort of supervision over the finances and management, in
a way, do you not?"

"In a way, yes."

"Yes. Of course, my dear sir, you understand that I am not unduly
curious. I don't mean to be. This--ah--Fair Harbor was, as you know,
very dear to the heart of Mrs. Phillips and, now that she has been taken
from me, I feel, of course, a sense of trust, of sacred responsibility.
We had understood, she and I, that our dear friend--Judge Knowles--was
in supreme charge--nominally, I mean; of course Mrs. Berry was in actual
charge--and, therefore, I confess to a natural feeling of--shall I say
surprise, on learning that the judge had appointed another person, an
understudy, as it were?"

"Well, you couldn't be any more surprised than I was when the judge
asked me to take the job. And Elizabeth and her mother know that I
hesitated considerable before I did take it. Judge Knowles was in his
last sickness, he couldn't attend to things himself."

Mr. Phillips raised a protesting hand. "Please don't misunderstand me,"
he said. "Don't, I beg of you, think for a moment that I am objecting to
the judge's action, or even criticizing it. It was precisely the thing
he should have done, what Mrs. Phillips and I would have wished him to
do. And as for his choice of--ah--appointee----"

Captain Sears interrupted. "As to that," he said, "you can criticize as
much as you please. You can't object any more than I did when me made me
the offer."

The protesting hand was again raised. "Criticism or objection was the
very farthest from my mind, I assure you," Egbert declared. "I was about
to say that Judge Knowles showed his usual--ah--acumen when he selected
a man as well known and highly esteemed as yourself, sir. The mention of
the name of Captain Kendall----"

"Kendrick."

"Kendrick, of course. I apologize once more. But, if you will permit me
to say so, a man as well and favorably known to us all as you are, sir,
is certainly the ideal occupant of the--ah--place."

"Thanks. You knew of me, then? I don't think you and I have ever met
before, have we?"

"No; no, I believe I have never before had the pleasure."

"Thanks. I was pretty sure I hadn't. I've been away from Bayport a good
deal. I wasn't here when you and your wife came back--about five years
ago, wasn't it? And, of course, I didn't know you when you used to live
here. Let's s