He's gettin' awfully high-toned--and high collared, seems to me."

Mrs. Macomber was slightly confused. "Why, no," she said, "this isn't
Joe's shirt. It's Mr. Phillips's. Ain't it lovely linen? I don't know as
I ever saw any finer."

Her brother leaned back in the broken chair. "Do you do his washin' for
him, Sarah?" he demanded.

"Why--why, yes, Sears. You see, he's real particular about how it's
done, and of course you can't blame him, he has such lovely things. He
tried two of the regular washwomen, Elsie Doyle and Peleg Carpenter's
wife, and they did 'em up just dreadful. So, just to help him out one
time, I tried 'em myself. And they came out real nice, if I do say it,
and he was so pleased. So ever since then I have been doin' 'em for
him. It's hardly any trouble--any extra trouble. I have to do our own
washin', you know."

Sears did know, also he knew the size of that washing.

"Does he pay you for it?" he asked, sharply. "Pay you enough, I mean?"

"Why--why, yes. Of course he doesn't pay a whole lot. Not as much maybe
as if he was a stranger, somebody who didn't pay me regular board, you
know."

"Humph! Do you get your money?"

"Why, yes. Of course I do."

"He doesn't owe you anything, then, for board or lodgin' or anything?"

Mrs. Macomber hesitated. "Nothin' much," she replied, after a moment.
"Of course he gets a little behind sometimes, everybody does that, you
know. But then his dividend payments or somethin' come to him and he
pays right up in a lump. It's kind of nice havin' it come that way,
seems more, you know."

"Yes. So long as it keeps on comin'. His dividends, you say? I thought
the story was that he hadn't any stocks left to get dividends from. I
thought he told all hands that he was poverty-stricken, that when he was
cut out of the Harbor property and the fifty thousand he hadn't a
copper."

"Oh no not as bad as that. He had some stocks and bonds, of course. Why,
if he hadn't where would he get _any_ money from? How could he live?"

"I don't know. He seems to be livin', though, and pretty well. Has he
got the parlor yet?"

"Yes, and it's fixed up so pretty. He's got his pictures and things
around. Wouldn't you like to see it? He's out, you know."

They went into the parlor and the bedroom adjoining, that which the
captain had occupied during his stay. Both rooms were as neat as
wax--Sears expected that, knowing his sister's housekeeping--but he had
scarcely expected to find the