s Hartley rose and pointing with a rigid fore-finger at her own
chair, changed places with him.

"You want to see yourself," declared Mr. Vyner.

Miss Hartley scorned to reply.

"Let's share the guilt," continued the other. "You shut your eyes and
raise the corner of the towel, and I'll do the 'peeping'."

The return of the unconscious captain with the beer rendered a reply
unnecessary.

"We half thought you would be at number nine," he said as the captain
poured him out a glass.

"I'm keeping house this evening," said the captain, "or else I should
have been."

"It's nice for you to have your children near you," said Joan, softly.

Captain Trimblett assented. "And it's nice to be able to give up the
sea," he said with a grateful glance at Vyner. "I'm getting old, and
that last bout of malaria hasn't made me any younger."

"The youngsters seem to get on all right with Mrs. Chinnery," said
Robert, eying him closely.

"Splendidly," said the Captain. "I should never have thought that she
would have been so good with children. She half worships them."

"Not all of them," said Mr. Vyner.

"All of 'em," said the captain.

"Twins, as well?" said Mr. Vyner, raising his voice.

"She likes them best of all," was the reply.

Mr. Vyner rose slowly from his chair. "She is a woman in a million," he
said impressively. "I wonder why--"

"They're very good girls," said the captain hastily. "Old Sellers thinks
there is nobody like them."

"I expect you'll be making a home for them soon," said Robert,
thoughtfully; "although it will be rather hard on Mrs. Chinnery to part
with them. Won't it?"

"We are all in the hands of fate," said the captain gazing suddenly at
his tumbler. "Fate rules all things from the cradle to the grave."

He poured himself out a little more beer and lapsing into a reminiscent
mood cited various instances in his own career, in confirmation. It was
an interesting subject, but time was pressing and Mr. Vyner, after a
regretful allusion to that part, announced that they must be going. Joan
rose, and Captain Trimblett, rising at the same moment, knocked over his
beer and in a moment of forgetfulness snatched the towel from the table
to wipe it up. The act revealed an electro-plated salad-bowl of noble
proportions, a saucer of whitening and some pieces of rag.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Salthaven, by W. W. Jacobs

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALTHAVEN ***

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