acted Alice and me to you. Don't try to be like other rich people."

The sight of the Captain and Alice walking slowly towards them cut short
the further admission of his own careless inexperience, and they all
took seats beneath a big pear-tree which shaded a semicircular wire
settee.

Haney had been confessing a little of his loneliness. "I will not
believe that me work in the world is done. 'Tis true, I took very little
care of me good days; but I was happy in me business, such as it was. Me
little wife there saves me from the blue divils when she's about, but
when I'm alone, sure it's deep in the dumps I go. Sometimes me mind
misgives me, to think of her tied to an old stump of a tree like me! But
maybe she's right--maybe I'm to recover me powers and be of use."

To this Alice could only reply, as comfortingly as she could: "You've
given her a good deal, Captain."

"So I have, but I mean to give more. As soon as I'm able to travel we're
going down the hill to see the world. Sometimes when we sit on our porch
and talk of it, it seems as if I could see the whole of the States
spread out before us--Chicago, Washington, New York, and all to choose
from. I can't get over the surprise of having the stream of money keep
comin'. I used to work hard--you may not believe that, but 'twas so. I
used to have long days and nights of watching. 'Twas work of a kind,
though you may not admire the kind. And now I have nothing to do but sit
and twist me two thumbs--and one of them bog-spavined, at that."

To this Alice had made no reply, for they were within earshot of Ben and
Bertha. Haney called out: "Sure, it must be near dinner-time, Bertie!--I
mean luncheon, ma'am--I'm lately instructed."

They all laughed in tune to his humor, and Bertha replied: "No more
twelve-o'clock dinners for us, Captain."

Haney groaned. "This fashionable life will be the death of me. Sure, I
eat and talk by rule a'ready. Where it will end I dunno."

Happily the bell soon relieved the strain, but the talk at the table
continued to be very personal--it could not be prevented, for each of
these four people was at a turning-point in his or her life. Haney,
feeling the slow tide of returning vigor in his limbs, was in trouble
thinking of what he was to do. Bertha, just beginning to tremble beneath
the mysterious stir of an all-demanding love, was uneasy, feverish, and
self-conscious. Alice, sensing the approach of weakness and decay, yet
struggling ag