household, then. I was the only girl in the family, and mother died when
I was ten years old."

After dinner she consented to sit for a time, though not until she had
donned her Sunday best, earrings and all. Captain Elisha and Sylvester
sat with them, and the big fireplace in the sitting room blazed and
roared as it had not since its owner left for his long sojourn in the
city. In the evening callers came, the Congregational minister and
his wife, and some of the neighbors. The latter were pleasant country
people, another retired sea captain among them, and they all seemed to
have great respect and liking for Captain Elisha and to be very glad to
welcome him home. The two captains spun salt water yarns, and the lawyer
again decided that he was getting just what he had come for. They left
a little after nine, and Caroline said good night and went to her room.
She was tired, mentally and physically.

But she did not fall asleep at once. Her mind was still busy with the
suspicion which her uncle's words concerning his future plans for Steve
had aroused. She had thought of little else since she heard them. The
captain did not mention the subject again; possibly, on reflection,
he decided that he had already said too much. And she asked no more
questions. She determined not to question him--yet. She must think
first, and then ask someone else--Sylvester. He knew the truth and, if
taken by surprise, might be driven into confession, if there should be
anything to confess. She was waiting for an opportunity to be alone with
him, and that opportunity had not yet presented itself.

The captain would have spoken further with her concerning James Pearson.
He was eager to do that. But her mind was made up; she had sent her
lover away, and it was best for both. She must forget him, if she could.
So, when her uncle would have spoken on that subject, she begged him not
to; and he, respecting her feelings and believing that to urge would be
bad policy, refrained.

But to forget, she found, was an impossibility. In the excitement of the
journey and the arrival amid new surroundings, she had managed to
keep up a show of good spirits, but now alone once more, with the wind
singing mournfully about the gables and rattling the windows, she was
sad and so lonely. She thought what her life had once promised to be and
what it had become. She did not regret the old life, that life she had
known before her father died; she had been happy in