hostess stood by the parlor
window gazing wistfully after them.

Her husband was unlocking the door of a certain closet upon the shelf of
which was kept a certain bottle and accompanying glasses. The closet had
not been opened before that evening, as the Reverend and Mrs. Dishup had
been among the dinner guests.

"Elkhanah," observed Mrs. Wingate, dreamily, "I do think Mr. Phillips is
the most elegant man I ever saw in my life. His language--and his
manners--they are perfect."

Captain Elkhanah nodded. "He's pretty slick," he agreed.

If he expected by thus agreeing to please his wife, he must have been
disappointed.

"Oh, _don't_ say 'slick'!" she snapped. "I do wish you wouldn't use such
countrified words."

"Eh?" indignantly. "Countrified! Well, I am country, ain't I? So are
you, so far as that goes. So was he once--when he was teachin' a
one-horse singin' school in this very town."

"Well, perhaps. But he has got over it. And it would pay you to take
lessons from him, and learn not to say 'slick' and 'ain't'."

Her husband grunted. "Pay!" he repeated. "I'll wait till he pays me the
twenty dollars he borrowed of me two weeks ago. He wasn't too citified
to do that."

Mrs. Wingate stalked to the stairs. "I'm ashamed of you," she declared.
"You know what a struggle he is having, and how splendid and
uncomplaining he is. And you a rich man! Any one would think you never
saw twenty dollars before."

Captain Elkhanah poured himself a judicious dose from the bottle.

"Maybe I never _will_ see _that_ twenty again," he observed with a
chuckle.

"Oh, you--you disgust me!"

"Oh, go----"

"_What?_ What are you trying to say to me?"

"Go to bed," said the captain, and took his dose.

CHAPTER XIV

If Elizabeth noticed that Sears was not as frequent a visitor at the
Fair Harbor as he had formerly been she said nothing about it. She
herself had ceased to run in at the Minot place to ask this question or
that. Since the occasion when Mr. Phillips interrupted the business talk
in the office and his apologies had brought about the slight
disagreement--if it may be called that--between the captain and Miss
Berry, the latter had, so Sears imagined, been a trifle less cordial to
him than before. She was not coldly formal or curt and disagreeable--her
mother was all of these things to the captain now, and quite without
reason so far as he could see--Elizabeth was not like that, but she was
less talkative, l