y.
"But she could live with you just the same."

The other shook his head. "Susanna would never stand another woman in
the house," he said, slowly. "She would go out and earn her own living;
that's her pride. And she wouldn't take anything from me. It's turning
her out of house and home."

"She'd be turning herself out," said the captain.

"Of course, there is the chance she might marry again," said the other,
slowly. "She's had several chances, but she refused 'em all."

"From what she said one day," said the captain, "I got the idea that
she has kept from marrying all these years for your sake."

Mr. Truefitt put his pipe down on the table and stared blankly before
him. "That's the worst of it," he said, forlornly; "but something will
have to be done. I've been engaged three weeks now, and every time I
spend a few minutes with Cecilia--Miss Willett--I have to tell a lie
about it."

"You do it very well," said his friend. "Very well indeed."

"And Susanna regards me as the most truthful man that ever breathed,"
continued Mr. Truefitt.

"You've got a truthful look about you," said the captain. "If I didn't
know you so well I should have thought the same."

Unconscious of Mr. Truefitt's regards he rose and, leaning his arm on
the fence at the bottom of the garden, watched the river.

"Miss Willett thinks she might marry again," said Mr. Truefitt,
picking up his pipe and joining him. "She'd make an excellent wife for
anybody--anybody."

The captain assented with a nod.

"Nobody could have a better wife," said Mr. Truefitt.

The captain, who was watching an outward-bound barque, nodded again,
absently.

"She's affectionate," pursued Mr. Truefitt, "a wonderful housekeeper,
a good conversationalist, a good cook, always punctual, always at home,
always--"

The captain, surprised at a fluency so unusual, turned and eyed him
in surprise. Mr. Truefitt broke off abruptly, and, somewhat red in the
face, expressed his fear that the barque would take the mud if she
were not careful. Captain Trimblett agreed and, to his friend's relief,
turned his back on him to watch her more closely. It was a comfortable
position, with his arms on the fence, and he retained it until Mr.
Truefitt had returned to the summer-house.

[Illustration: It was a comfortable position 034]

CHAPTER IV

MR. ROBERT VYNER had been busy all the afternoon, and the clock still
indicated fifteen minutes short of the time at which he had