er, her third day in the riggers' and
sailmakers' hands, when Clancy came along.

"Handsome, ain't she, and only needing a skipper and crew to be off on
the Southern cruise, eh, Joe?"

"That's all. And according to the talk, you're to be the skipper."

"Well, talk has another according coming to it."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But what happened at Mrs. Arkell's the other
day?"

"What happened? Joe, but I was glad you didn't come with me. You'd
have felt as I did about it, I know. There they were--the two of
them--Hollis and Withrow--yes, Withrow there--when I broke in on them,
and Maurice between them--drunk. Yes, sir, drunk and helpless. They
called it a wine-party, as though a man couldn't get as good and drunk
on wine in a private residence as ever he could on whiskey or rum in
the back room of a saloon. Well, sir, I asked a question or two, and
they tried to face me out, but out they went--first Hollis, and then
Withrow, one after the other, and both good and lively. And then
Minnie Arkell popped in from her own house by way of the backyard. She
didn't expect to see me--I know she didn't. Had gone over to her house
when the men began to drink, she said, and had just come over to see
granny.

"Well, I told her what I thought. 'It means nothing to you,' I
said, 'to see a man make a fool of himself--that's been a good
part of your business in life for some time, now--to see men make
fools of themselves for you. Withrow had reasons for wanting him
disgraced--never mind why. Sam Hollis, maybe, has his reasons too. And
the two of them are being helped along by you. You could have stopped
this thing here to-day, but you didn't.' 'No, no, Tommie,' she says.
'Yes, yes,' I went on, 'and don't try to tell me different. If I
didn't know you since you were a little girl you might be able to
convince me, but I know you. Maurice, when he was himself, passed
you by. You were bound to have him. You know a real man, more's the
pity, when you see one, and you know that Maurice, young and green
and soft as he is, has more life and dash than a dozen of the kind
you've been mixing with lately.'

"Oh, but I laid it on, Joe. Yes. A shame to have to talk like that to
a woman, but I just had to. I didn't stop there. 'You're handsome, and
you're rich, Minnie Arkell; got a lot of life left in you yet, and go
off travelling with people who get their names regularly in the Boston
papers; but just the same, Minnie Arkell, there are women