an embarrassing silence, during which Miss Drewitt, who had
turned very red, felt strangely uncomfortable. She felt more
uncomfortable still when Mr. Tredgold, discovering a bank-note and a
little collection of gold coins in another pocket, artlessly expressed
his joy at the discovery. The simple-minded captain and Mr. Chalk both
experienced a sense of relief; Miss Drewitt sat and simmered in helpless
indignation.

"You're careless in money matters, my lad," said the captain,
reprovingly.

"I couldn't understand him making all that fuss over a couple o' pounds,"
said Mr. Chalk, looking round. "He's very free, as a rule; too free."

Mr. Tredgold, sitting grave and silent, made no reply to these charges,
and the girl was the only one to notice a faint twitching at the corners
of his mouth. She saw it distinctly, despite the fact that her clear,
grey eyes were fixed dreamily on a spot some distance above his head.

She sat in her room upstairs after the visitors had gone, thinking it
over. The light was fading fast, and as she sat at the open window the
remembrance of Mr. Tredgold's conduct helped to mar one of the most
perfect evenings she had ever known.

Downstairs the captain was also thinking. Dialstone Lane was in shadow,
and already one or two lamps were lit behind drawn blinds. A little
chatter of voices at the end of the lane floated in at the open window,
mellowed by distance. His pipe was out, and he rose to search in the
gloom for a match, when another murmur of voices reached his ears from
the kitchen. He stood still and listened intently. To put matters
beyond all doubt, the shrill laugh of a girl was plainly audible. The
captain's face hardened, and, crossing to the fireplace, he rang the
bell.

"Yessir," said Joseph, as he appeared and closed the door carefully
behind him.

"What are you talking to yourself in that absurd manner for?" inquired
the captain with great dignity.

"Me, sir?" said Mr. Tasker, feebly.

"Yes, you," repeated the captain, noticing with surprise that the door
was slowly opening.

Mr. Tasker gazed at him in a troubled fashion, but made no reply.

"I won't have it," said the captain, sternly, with a side glance at the
door. "If you want to talk to yourself go outside and do it. I never
heard such a laugh. What did you do it for? It was like an old woman
with a bad cold."

He smiled grimly in the darkness, and then started slightly as a cough, a
hostile, c