a free agent, and I don't
know of any reason why he should be compelled to go where he doesn't
wish to go. I enjoyed his society, and I'm sure Captain Eri and Mrs.
Snow enjoyed it, too; but it is quite evident that he did not enjoy
ours, so I don't see that there need be any more said on the subject."

Captain Jerry was completely crushed. If the gale described by the
redoubtable grandsire of Jonadab Wixon had struck him, he could not have
been more upset.

"My! my! my!" he murmured. "And after my beggin' his pardon and all!"

"Begging his pardon? For what?"

"Why, for leavin' you two alone. Of course, after you pitched into me
so I see how foolish I'd been actin', and I--honest, I didn't sleep
scursely a bit that night thinkin' 'bout it. Thinks I, 'If Elsie feels
that way, why, there ain't no doubt that Mr. Hazeltine feels the same.'
There wa'n't but one thing to be done. When a man makes a mistake, if he
is any kind of a man, he owns up, and does his best to straighten things
out. 'Twa'n't easy to do, but duty's duty, and the next time I see Mr.
Hazeltine I told him the whole thing, and--"

"You DID!"

"Sartin I did."

"What did you tell him?"

They had stopped on the sidewalk nearly opposite the post-office. Each
was too much engrossed in the conversation to pay any heed to anything
else. If the few passersby thought it strange that the schoolmistress
should care to loiter out of doors on that cold and disagreeable
morning, they said nothing about it. One young man in particular, who,
standing just inside the post-office door, was buttoning his overcoat
and putting on his gloves, looked earnestly at the pair, but he, too,
said nothing.

"Why, I told him," said Captain Jerry, in reply to the question, "how
you didn't like to have me go out of the room when he was there. Course,
I told him I didn't mean to do nothin' out of the way. Then he asked me
some more questions, and I answered 'em best I could, and--well, I guess
that's 'bout all."

"Did you tell him that I said his visits were a torture?"

"Why--" the Captain shuffled his feet uneasily--"seems to me I said
somethin' 'bout it--not jest that, you know, but somethin'. Fact is, I
was so muddle-headed and upset that I don't know exactly what I did say.
Anyhow, he said 'twas all right, so there ain't nothin' to worry 'bout."

"Captain Jeremiah Burgess!" exclaimed Elsie. Then she added, "What MUST
he think of me?"

"Oh, I'll fix that!" exclaimed the