white; something startled her. She looked as one might who saw a
fearful ghost.

"No," said the man; "but my folks used to be some of the best in
Salem. I haven't shown my head there this good while. I was an orphan.
My grandmother brought me up. Why, I didn't come back to the States
for thirty or forty years. Along at the first of it I used to see men
in port that I used to know; but I always dodged 'em, and I was way
off in outlandish places. I've got an awful sight to answer for. I
used to have a good wife when I was in Australia. I don't know where I
haven't been, first and last. I was always a hard fellow. I've spent
as much as a couple o' fortunes, and here I am. Devil take it!"

Nelly was still sewing in the dining-room; but, soon after Miss Dane
had gone out to the kitchen, one of the doors between had slowly
closed itself with a plaintive whine. The round stone that Melissa
used to keep it open had been pushed away. Nelly was a little annoyed:
she liked to hear what was going on; but she was just then holding her
work with great care in a place that was hard to sew; so she did not
move. She heard the murmur of voices, and thought, after a while, that
the old vagabond ought to go away by this time. What could be making
her cousin Horatia talk so long with him? It was not like her at all.
He would beg for money, of course, and she hoped Miss Horatia would
not give him a single cent.

It was some time before the kitchen-door opened, and the man came out
with clumsy, stumbling steps. "I'm much obliged to you," he said, "and
I don't know but it is the last time I'll get treated as if I was a
gentleman. Is there any thing I could do for you round the place?" he
asked hesitatingly, and as if he hoped that his offer would not be
accepted.

"No," answered Miss Dane. "No, thank you. Good-by!" and he went away.

I said he had been lifted a little above his low life; he fell back
again directly before he was out of the gate. "I'm blessed if she
didn't give me a ten-dollar bill!" said he. "She must have thought it
was one. I'll get out o' call as quick as I can, hope she won't find
it out, and send anybody after me." Visions of unlimited drinks, and
other things in which the old sailor found pleasure, flitted through
his stupid mind. "How the old lady stared at me once!" he thought.
"Wonder if she was anybody I used to know? 'Downton?' I don't know as
I ever heard of the place." And he scuffed along the dusty road; and