ed and spoke as
if she did. He faltered and hesitated, and she pressed her advantage.
And at last he yielded.

"All right," he said desperately. "All right--or all wrong, whichever it
turns out to be. I'll take the trustee job--try it for a time anyhow.
But, I tell you, Elizabeth, I'm afraid we're both makin' a big mistake."

She was not in the least afraid, and said so.

"You have made me very happy, Cap'n Kendrick," she declared. "I can't
thank you enough."

He shook his head, but before he could reply there came a sharp knock on
the outer door, the back door of the house.

"Who on earth is that?" exclaimed Sears. Then he shouted, "Come in."

The person who came in was George Kent.

"Why, George!" said Elizabeth. Then she added. "What is it? What is the
matter?"

The young man looked as if something was the matter. His expression was
not at all pleasant.

"Evenin', George," said the captain. "Glad to see you. Sit down."

Kent ignored both the invitation and the speaker.

"Look here," he demanded, addressing Miss Berry: "do you know what time
it is? It is ten o'clock."

His tone was so rude--so boyishly rude--that Sears looked up quickly and
Elizabeth drew back.

"It's nearly ten o'clock," repeated Kent. "And you are over here."

"George!" exclaimed Sears, sharply.

"You are over here--with him--again."

It was Elizabeth who spoke now. She said but one word.

"Well?" she asked.

There was an icy chill about that "Well?" which a more cautious person
that George Kent might have noticed and taken as a warning. But the
young man was far from cautious at that moment.

"_Well?_" he repeated hotly. "I don't think it's well at all. I come see
you and--I find you over here. And I find that every one else knows you
are here. And they think it queer, too; I could see that they did.... Of
course, I don't say----"

"I think you have said enough. I came here to talk with Cap'n Kendrick
on a business matter. I told mother where I was going when I left the
house. The others heard me, I suppose; I certainly did not try to
conceal it. Why should I?"

"Why should you? Why, you should because--because---- Well, if you don't
know why you shouldn't be here, he does."

"He? Cap'n Kendrick?"

"Yes. I--I told him why, myself. Only this noon I told him. I was here
and I told him people were beginning to talk about you and he being
together so much and--and his taking you to ride, and all that sort of
thing. I told