ce that time when--when Elizabeth was here and I came over
and--and said all those fool things to you, I--I've been ashamed. I
_was_ a fool. I am a fool most of the time, I guess."

"Oh, I guess not, George. We're all taken with the foolish disease once
in a while."

"But I was such a fool. The idea of my being jealous of you--a man
pretty nearly old enough to be my father. No, not so old as that, of
course, but--older. I don't know what ailed me, but whatever it was,
I've paid for it.... She--she has hardly spoken to me since."

"I'm sorry, George."

"Yes.... Has she--has she said anything about me to you, Cap'n?"

"Why--er--no, George, not much. She and I are not--well, not very
confidential, outside of business matters, that is."

"No, I suppose not. Mr. Phillips told me she had--well, that she and you
were not--not as----"

"Yes, all right, all right, George; I understand. Outside of Fair Harbor
managin' we don't talk of many things."

"No, that's what he said. He seemed to think you two had had some sort
of quarrel--or disagreement, you know. But I never took much stock in
that. After all, why should you and she be interested in the same sort
of things? She isn't much older than I am, about my age really, and of
course you----"

"Yes, yes," hastily. "All right.... Well, I guess your coat is middlin'
dry, George. Here it is."

"Thanks. But that wasn't all I meant to say. You see, Cap'n Kendrick, I
did treat you so badly and yet all the time I've had such confidence in
you. Ever since you gave me that advice the night of the theatricals
I've--well, somehow I've felt as if a fellow could depend on you, you
know--always, in spite of everything. Eh, why, by George, _she_ said
that very thing about you once, said it to me. She said you were so
dependable. Say, that's queer, that she and I should both think the very
same thing about you."

"Um-m. Yes, isn't it?"

"Yes. It shows, after all, how closely alike our minds, hers and mine,
work. We"--he hesitated, reddened, and then continued, with a fresh
outburst of confidence: "You see, Cap'n," he said, "I have felt all the
time that this--this trouble between Elizabeth and me, wasn't going to
last. I was to blame--at least, I guess I probably was, and I meant to
go to her and tell her so. But I waited until--until I had pulled off
this stock deal. I meant to go to her with two or three thousand dollars
that I had made myself, you see, and--and ask her pardon a