chair.

"I'm afraid I can't stop to have supper with you, Labe," he said. "I've
got an--an errand to do outside, myself. I'll eat at a restaurant or
somewhere. You'll stay here to-night, of course. I'll see you in the
mornin'. Good-night! Good-night, Zuby!"

Azuba did not reply. Laban shouted protests. What was the sense of going
just when supper was being made ready at last? Daniel, however, did
not stay to listen. He climbed the back stairs to the hall, put on his
overcoat and hat and went out. He had been too tender-hearted to remain
in the kitchen and gloat, or appear to gloat, over a "free woman's"
humiliation. Nevertheless, he astonished the waiter at the restaurant
where he ate dinner by bursting into laughter at intervals, and with
no obvious cause. The waiter suspected that the old gentleman from the
country had been drinking, and the size of the tip he received helped to
confirm his suspicion.

His dinner eaten, Captain Dan walked slowly home. Unlocking the front
door with his latchkey he tiptoed through the hall and listened at the
head of the back stairs. There was a steady murmur of voices in the
kitchen. He heard a bass grumble from Mr. Ginn and Azuba's shrill reply.
Then the pair burst into a laugh. Evidently some sort of understanding
on a peaceful basis had been reached. Still chuckling, the captain went
up to his bedroom, removed his outer garments and his shoes, put on his
bathrobe and slippers, and settled himself, with the evening paper, to
await his wife's return. He resolved to be awake when she did return;
he had news for her. Filled with this resolution, he read for
three-quarters of an hour steadily, then at intervals between naps, and
at last dropped into a sound sleep, the paper in his lap.

Gertrude and Serena came home at a surprisingly early hour. Not that the
committee meeting was over; it was not. In fact, the elaborate dinner
spread before her supporters by the grateful Mrs. Black had scarcely
reached its last course when Gertrude suddenly rose from the table and
hastened to her mother's side. She had been watching the latter with
increasing anxiety all the evening.

"What is it, Mother?" she asked. "What is it?"

Serena, sitting with her elbow on the table, her hand to her forehead,
and her untasted ice before her, looked up in a bewildered way.

"What--why, what do you mean, Gertie?" she stammered. "What--I don't
think I understood you."

"What is the matter, Mother?" repea