, I don't feel that it's quite honest
to be taking your money for the mockery of teaching the boys,
particularly Alick!' As he forced himself to speak thus, a dark-red
flush rose to Philip Price's brow, for he was one of the over-sensitive
folk.

'Pshaw, man! What a fool you must be!' The blunt captain was at the
end of his patience. He was quivering to get back to his work.
'Besides, boys will be boys all the world over. Alick is no worse than
others, I suppose. You're too conscientious. It's absurd!' ended the
sailor in a more kindly tone, after he had pushed his spectacles up
into the roots of his iron-grey hair, to take a leisurely look at the
earnest, agitated face confronting him.

'Now, I'll tell you what, Price!' he began again--'the best thing you
can do is to go and talk the matter over with Theo. That girl can do
anything with her brothers. She's got a way that some women are born
with--not all women, mind you, but my Theo has it. Just go and consult
her, and let me get on with my work, I beg of you. I am going over my
MSS. for the fifth time, young man! That will give you an idea of my
perseverance with difficulties. Follow the example, and you'll soon
conquer those young limbs. Now, good morning to you, Price, good
morning!' and Philip was hastily bowed out of the stuffy little
sanctum, with its piles of MSS. and its odours of stale tobacco.

'Theo's the one to settle it all!' cheerfully muttered the captain, as
the tutor's footsteps died away. 'She's such a sensible little woman,
and has such a talent for managing and organising; she takes after me!'
he added, with a complacence that would have received a rude shock by a
little plain speaking as to those duties close at hand in his home that
he was daily neglecting, in order to follow a will-o'-the-wisp in the
shape of literary success.

'Miss Carnegy, the captain has referred me to you about a matter I have
been forced to mention to him.'

Philip Price was standing in the doorway of the tea-house, as the
Carnegys called the rustic erection at the end of the long,
unproductive garden, hanging sheer over the little rocky headland on
which the captain had built his bunk, when he came to settle at
Northbourne. A large part of the Carnegys' lives was spent in the
tea-house, for as a family they loved the open air.

It was Queenie's schoolroom, in spring, summer, and autumn. The two
fair heads raised at the sound of Philip's voice belong