fter I've seen it--not alone once but forty dozen
times--I'll talk about it if I want to, when I want to, to anybody I
want to. Now that's that much."

Elizabeth, scornfully silent, was turning to the door, but the little
woman hopped--that seems the only word which describes it--in her way.

"You ain't goin'," she declared, "till I've finished. 'Twon't take me
long to say it, but it's goin' to be said. I told Cap'n Sears that Eg
Phillips was chasin' 'round with your mother. He is. And if she ain't
glad to have him chase her then I never see anybody that was. I said
them two was cal'latin' to get married. Well ... well, if they ain't
then they'd ought to be, that's all I'll say about _that_. And don't you
ever call me a spy again as long as you live, 'Liz'beth Berry."

She hopped again, to the doorway this time. There she turned for a
farewell cackle.

"One thing more," she said. "I told the cap'n I believed the reason that
that Eg man wanted to marry Cordelia was on account of her bein' able to
give him five thousand dollars and the Fair Harbor to live in. I do
believe it. And you can tell her so--or him so. But afore I told anybody
I'd think it over, if I was you, 'Liz'beth Berry. And I'd think _him_
over a whole lot afore I'd let him and his 'ily tongue make trouble
between you and your _real_ friends.... There! Good-by."

She went away. Kendrick pulled at his beard.

"Elizabeth," he began, hastily, "I'm awfully sorry that this happened.
Of course you know that I----"

She interrupted him. "I know," she said, "that if I ever speak to you
again it will be because I am obliged to, not because I want to."

She followed Mrs. Tidditt. Sears Kendrick sat down once more in the
rocking chair.

He did a great deal of hard and unpleasant thinking before he rose from
it. When he did rise it was to go to the drawer in the bureau of the
spare stateroom where he kept his writing materials, take therefrom pen,
ink and paper and sit down at the table to write a letter. The letter
was not long of itself, but composing it was a rather lengthy process.
It was addressed to Elizabeth Berry and embodied his resignation as
trustee and guardian of her inheritance from Judge Knowles.

* * * * *

"As I see it [he wrote] I am not the one to have charge of that money. I
took the job, as you know, because the judge asked me to and because you
asked me. I took it with a good deal of doubt. Now, consideri