oticeably silent during dinner. Miss Timpson said afterward:
"That Mr. Kendrick isn't much of a talker, is he? I guess he's what they
call a good listener, for he seemed to be real interested, especially
when Miss Howes was talkin'. He'd look at her and look at her, and time
and time again I thought he was goin' to say somethin', but he didn't."

He was not talkative when alone with Captain Obed that afternoon. They
paid one more visit to the building "opposite the postoffice" and while
there he asked a few questions concerning the rent. The figure named by
the captain was a low one and John seemed to think it too low. "I'm not
asking charity," he declared. "At least you might charge me enough to
pay for the paint I may rub off when I open the door."

But Captain Obed obstinately refused to raise his figure. "I've charged
enough to risk what paint there is," he announced. "If I charged more
I'd feel as if I had to paint fresh, and I don't want to do that. What's
the matter with you, John? Want to heave your money away, do you? Better
keep the odd change to buy cigars. You can heave them away, if you want
to--and you won't be liable to hit many lawyers neither."

At supper time as they stood by the gate of the High Cliff House the
captain, who was to eat at his regular boarding-place, the Parkers',
that evening, ventured to ask the question he had been so anxious to
ask.

"Well, John?" he began.

"Well, Captain?"

"Have you--have you made up your mind yet?"

Kendrick turned over, with his foot, a stone in the path.

"I--" he paused and turned the stone back again. Then he drew a long
breath. "I must make it up," he said, "and I can do it as well now as a
week later, I suppose. Wherever I go there will be a risk, a big risk.
Captain Bangs, I'll take that risk here. If you are willing to let
me have that office of yours for six months at the figure you have
named--and I think you are crazy to do it--I will send for my trunk and
my furniture and begin to--look out of the window."

Captain Obed was delighted. "Shake, John," he exclaimed. "I'm tickled
to death. And I'll tell you this: If you can't get a client no other way
I'll--I'll break into the meetin'-house and steal a pew or somethin'.
Then you can defend me. Eh . . . And now what about a place for you to
eat and sleep?" he added, after a moment.

The young man seemed to find the question as hard to answer as the
other.

"I like it here," he admitted. "I li