angers is a little mite worse than travelin'
alone. You want to be mighty sure of your shipmate."

I walked home. Hephzibah was in the sitting-room, reading and knitting
a stocking, a stocking for me. She did not need to use her eyes for the
knitting; I am quite sure she could have knit in her sleep.

"Hello, Hosy," she said, "been up to the office, have you? Any mail?"

"Nothing much. Humph! Still reading that Raymond and Whitcomb circular?"

"No, not that one. This is one I got last year. I've been sittin' here
plannin' out just where I'd go and what I'd see if I could. It's the
next best thing to really goin'."

I looked at her. All at once a new idea began to crystallize in my mind.
It was a curious idea, a ridiculous idea, and yet--and yet it seemed--

"Hephzy," said I, suddenly, "would you really like to go abroad?"

"WOULD I? Hosy, how you talk! You know I've been crazy to go ever since
I was a little girl. I don't know what makes me so. Perhaps it's the
salt water in my blood. All our folks were sailors and ship captains.
They went everywhere. I presume likely it takes more than one generation
to kill off that sort of thing."

"And you really want to go?"

"Of course I do."

"Then why haven't you gone? You could afford to take a moderate-priced
tour."

Hephzy laughed over her knitting.

"I guess," she said, "I haven't gone for the reason you haven't, Hosy.
You could afford, it, too--you know you could. But how could I go and
leave you? Why, I shouldn't sleep a minute wonderin' if you were wearin'
clothes without holes in 'em and if you changed your flannels when the
weather changed and ate what you ought to, and all that. You've been
so--so sort of dependent on me and I've been so used to takin' care of
you that I don't believe either of us would be happy anywhere without
the other. I know certain sure _I_ shouldn't."

I did not answer immediately. The idea, the amazing, ridiculous
idea which had burst upon me suddenly began to lose something of its
absurdity. Somehow it began to look like the answer to my riddle. I
realized that my main objection to the Campbell prescription had been
that I must take it alone or with strangers. And now--

"Hephzy," I demanded, "would you go away--on a trip abroad--with me?"

She put down the knitting.

"Hosy Knowles!" she exclaimed. "WHAT are you talkin' about?"

"But would you?"

"I presume likely I would, if I had the chance; but it isn't likely
that--wh