wife is dead.'"

There was an appreciable pause, in which we were all silent, and then
Rulledge demanded, greedily, "And was she?"

"Really, Rulledge!" I could not help protesting.

Minver asked him, almost compassionately and with unwonted gentleness,
as from the mood in which his reminiscence had left him: "You
suspected a hoax? She had died suddenly the night before while she and
my cousin were getting things ready to welcome my uncle home in the
morning. I'm sorry you're disappointed," he added, getting back to his
irony.

"Whatever," Rulledge pursued, "became of the little girl?"

"She died rather young; a great many years ago; and my uncle soon
after her."

Rulledge went away without saying anything, but presently returned
with the sandwich which he had apparently gone for, while Wanhope was
remarking: "That want of definition in the presentiment at first, and
then its determination in the new direction by, as it were,
propinquity--it is all very curious. Possibly we shall some day
discover a law in such matters."

Rulledge said: "How was it your boyhood was passed in the Middle West,
Minver? I always thought you were a Bostonian."

"I was an adoptive Bostonian for a good while, until I decided to
become a native New-Yorker, so that I could always be near to you,
Rulledge. You can never know what a delicate satisfaction you are."

Minver laughed, and we were severally restored to the wonted relations
which his story had interrupted.

III

CAPTAIN DUNLEVY'S LAST TRIP

It was against the law, in such case made and provided,
Of the United States, but by the good will of the pilots
That we would some of us climb to the pilot-house after our breakfast
For a morning smoke, and find ourselves seats on the benching
Under the windows, or in the worn-smooth arm-chairs. The pilot,
Which one it was did not matter, would tilt his head round and say,
"All right!"
When he had seen who we were, and begin, or go on as from stopping
In the midst of talk that was leading up to a story,
Just before we came in, and the story, begun or beginning,
Always began or ended with some one, or something or other,
Having to do with the river. If one left the wheel to the other,
Going off watch, he would say to his partner standing behind him
With his hands stretched out for the spokes that were not given up yet,
"Captain, you can