ee; you used to teach singin'-school, didn't you?"

This question was asked in the most casual fashion. Mr. Phillips did not
answer at once. He coughed, changed his position, and then smiled
graciously.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, I--I did something of the sort, for a time. Music
has always been a--one might call it a--ah--hobby of mine. But,
regarding your duties as--well, whatever those duties are, Captain
Kendrick: You say they are not arduous. And your--ah--compensation?
That, I understand, is not large? Pardon my referring to it, but as Mrs.
Phillips was the owner and benefactress of the Fair Harbor, and as I
am--shall I say heir--to her interests, why, perhaps my excuse for
asking for information is--ah--a reasonable one."

He paused, and with another smile and wave of the hand, awaited his
host's reply. Sears looked at him.

"I guess you know what my wages are, Mr. Phillips," he observed. "Don't
you?"

"Why--why--ah--ah----"

"Didn't Cordelia tell you? She knows. So does Elizabeth."

"Why--why, Mrs. Berry did mention a figure, I believe. I seem to
recall--ah--ah--something."

"If you remember fifteen hundred a year, you will have it right. That is
the amount I'm paid for bein' in general command over there. As you say,
it isn't very large, but perhaps it's large enough for what I do."

"Oh--ah, _don't_ misunderstand me, Captain Kendrick, please don't. I
was not questioning the amount of your salary."

"Wasn't you? My mistake. I thought you was."

"No; indeed no. My only feeling in regard to it was its--ah--trifling
size. It--pardon me, but it seemed such a small sum for you to accept, a
man of your attainments."

"My attainments, as you call 'em, haven't got me very far I'm a poor man
and, just now at any rate, I'm a cripple, a wreck on a lee shore.
Fifteen hundred a year isn't so small to me."

Mr Phillips apologized. He was sorry he had referred to the subject. But
the captain, he was sure, understood his motive for asking, and, now
that so much had been said, might he say just a word more.

"Our dear Cordelia--Mrs. Berry--" he went on, "intimated that
your--ah--compensation was paid by the judge, himself."

"Yes it was. Judge Knowles paid it with his own money. It doesn't come
out of the Fair Harbor funds."

"Yes, yes, of course, of course. The judge's interest in my beloved
wife's--ah--whims--perhaps that is too frivolous a word--was
extraordinarily fine. But now the judge has passed on."

"Y