k
Cecilia can rub it for me when I get home with a little oil of camphor."

"Yes, mother," said Miss Willett.

"I once had a stiff neck for three weeks," said Mrs. Willett.

The captain rose again and, with a compassionate glance at Mr. Truefitt,
closed the window.

"One can't have everything in this world," said the old lady; "it ought
to be a very cosey room in winter, You can't get too far away from the
fire, I mean."

"It has done for us for a good many years now," said Mrs. Chinnery.
"I've never heard Peter complain."

"He'd never complain," said Mrs. Willett, with a fond smile at her
prospective son-in-law. "Why, he wouldn't know he was uncomfortable
unless somebody told him."

Mrs. Chinnery pushed back her chair with a grating noise, strangely in
harmony with her feelings, and, after a moment's pause to control her
voice, suggested that the gentlemen should take the visitors round
the garden while she cleared away--a proposal accepted by all but Mrs.
Willett.

"I'll stay here and watch you," she said.

Captain Trimblett accompanied Mr. Truefitt and Miss Willett into the
garden, and after pointing out the missing beauties of a figure-head
in the next garden but one, and calling attention to the geraniums next
door, left the couple to themselves. Side by side in the little arbour
they sat gazing on to the river and conversing in low tones of their
future happiness.

For some time the captain idled about the garden, keeping as far away
from the arbour as possible, and doing his best to suppress a decayed
but lively mariner named Captain Sellers, who lived two doors off. Among
other infirmities the latter was nearly stone-deaf, and, after giving
up as hopeless the attempt to make him understand that Mr. Truefitt and
Miss Willett were not, the captain at last sought shelter in the house.

He found the table clear and a bowl of flowers placed in the exact
centre. On opposite sides of the room, each with her hands folded in
her lap, and both sitting bolt upright, Mrs. Willett and Mrs. Chinnery
confronted each other. With a muttered reference to his ship, the
captain took up his stick and fled.

[Illustration: Mrs. Willett and Mrs. Chinnery confronted each other 082]

He spent the evening in the billiard-room of the Golden Fleece, and did
not return until late. A light in the room up-stairs and a shadow on
the blind informed him that Mrs. Chinnery had retired. He stepped in
quietly, and closed the door b