"Oh, go to--Jericho!" muttered Mr. Truefitt, and, taking Miss Willett
by the arm, disappeared into the summer-house again. "Where were we when
that old idiot interrupted us?" he inquired, tenderly.

Miss Willett told him, and, nestling within his encircling arm, listened
with as forbidding an expression as she could command to further
arguments on the subject of secret marriages.

"It's no use," she said at last "I mustn't listen. It's wicked. I am
surprised at you, Peter. You must never speak to me on the subject
again."

She put her head on his shoulder, and Mr. Truefitt, getting a better
grip with his arm, drew her toward him.

"Think it over," he whispered, and bent and kissed her.

"Never," was the reply.

Mr. Truefitt kissed her again, and was about to repeat the performance
when she started up with a faint scream, and, pushing him away, darted
from the summer-house and fled up the garden. Mr. Truefitt, red with
wrath, stood his ground and stared ferociously at the shrunken figure of
Captain Sellers standing behind the little gate in the fence that gave
on to the foreshore. The captain, with a cheery smile, lifted the latch
and entered the garden.

"I picked a little bunch o' flowers for Miss Willett," he said,
advancing and placing them on the table.

"Who told you to come into my garden?" shouted the angry Mr. Truefitt.

"Yes, all of 'em," said Captain Sellers, taking up the bunch and looking
at them. "Smell!"

He thrust the bunch into the other's face, and withdrawing it plunged
his own face into it with rapturous sniffs. Mr. Truefitt, his nose
decorated with pollen ravished from a huge lily, eyed him murderously.

"Get out of my garden," he said, with an imperious wave of his hand.

"I can't hear what you say," said the captain, following the direction
of the other's hand and stepping outside. "Sometimes I think my
deafness gets worse. It's a great deprivation.''

"Is it?" said Mr. Truefitt. He made a funnel of both hands and bent to
the old man's willing ear.

"You're an artful, interfering, prying, inquisitive old busybody," he
bellowed. "Can you hear that?"

"Say it again," said the captain, his old eyes snapping.

Mr. Truefitt complied.

"I didn't quite catch the last word," said the captain.

"_Busybody!_" yelled Mr. Truefitt. "_Busybody!_ B--u--s----"

"I heard," said Captain Sellers, with sudden and alarming dignity. "Take
your coat off."

"Get out of my garden," responded M