peaking. But she is your blood relation."

"Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?"

"They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any
in all Barnstable County."

"But--er--sort of simple?"

The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis
flashed her a look that showed comprehension.

"Just about as simple as I am," he said.

"Oh!"

"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he
had the best of it so far.

They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He
desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At
least, not with his present companion.

"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one
used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries.

But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and
Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the
dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter
appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without
knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance.

While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her.
He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But
he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed
her services.

"Goodness! What do they want me for--a nurse?" she demanded tartly.

The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira
and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered
comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and
investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he
understood it, would share their home and their means.

"And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and
potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a _home_?" she
demanded, her brown eyes snapping.

"_I_ don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough.
"I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks."

"And I know all about what it is down there," the girl said quickly.
"My mother came from there. She was glad enough to get away, too, I
warrant. Why should I give up a good job and the city to live in
such a dead-and-alive hole?"

"That is for you to decide," Tunis replied, not without secret
relief.

He could not understand her attitude. He remembered that South End
lodging house with secret horror. But evidently Ida May Bostwick was
wedded to the tawdry conveniences and gayetie