ray. "Why
don't you tell him what folks think?" was a frequent question; but
after a first venture even the most intimate and valiant friends were
sure to mind their own business, as the indignant captain bade them.
Two of them had been partially won over to Mrs. French's side by a
taste of her good cooking. In fact, these were Captain Dunn and
Captain Allister, who, at the eleven o'clock rendezvous, reported
their wives as absent at the County Conference, and were promptly
bidden to a chowder dinner by the independent Captain Ball, who
gloried in the fact that neither of his companions would dare to ask a
friend home unexpectedly. Our hero promised his guests that what they
did not find in eatables they should make up in drinkables, and
actually produced a glistening decanter of Madeira that had made
several voyages in his father's ships while he himself was a boy.
There were several casks and long rows of cobwebby bottles in the
cellar, which had been provided against possible use in case of
illness, but the captain rarely touched them, though he went regularly
every morning for a social glass of what he frankly persisted in
calling his grog. The dinner party proved to be a noble occasion, and
Mrs. French won the esteem of the three elderly seamen by her discreet
behavior, as well as by the flavor of the chowder.

They walked out into the old garden when the feast was over, and
continued their somewhat excited discussion of the decline of
shipping, on the seats of the ancient latticed summer-house. There
Mrs. French surprised them by bringing out a tray of coffee, served in
the handsome old cups which the captain's father had brought home from
France. She was certainly a good-looking woman, and stepped modestly
and soberly along the walk between the mallows and marigolds. Her
feminine rivals insisted that she looked both bold and sly, but she
minded her work like a steam-tug, as the captain whispered admiringly
to his friends.

"Ain't never ascertained where she came from last, have ye?" inquired
Captain Alister, emboldened by the best Madeira and the
good-fellowship of the occasion.

"I'm acquainted with all I need to know," answered Captain Ball,
shortly; but his face darkened, and when his guests finished their
coffee they thought it was high time to go away.

Everybody was sorry that a jarring note had been struck on so
delightful an occasion, but it could not be undone. On the whole, the
dinner was an unco