t:
"Stephen wants to see you, so I told him maybe you would let him. Shall
I tell him to come?"

"Your brother, you mean? The one who lives here in New York?" she asked
listlessly.

"Yes, he's never forgotten you. And--"

"Some day I will see him, Martha. I shall be better soon, and then--"

She stopped and stared at Carlin, who misunderstanding Martha's words,
had drawn aside the calico curtain and was advancing toward her, bowing
as he walked, the choke still in his throat. "I hope your ladyship is
not offended," he ventured. "It was all one family once, if I may say
so, and there is only Martha and me."

She had straightened as she saw him coming and then, remembering that
she was in Martha's room, and he Martha's brother, she held out her
hand. "No, Stephen, I am very glad. I was only a little startled. It is
a long time since I saw you, but I remember you quite well, and you have
not changed. A little grayer perhaps. When was it?"

"When I came back from Calcutta, your ladyship, and the Rover was
wrecked. Your father ordered the crew home. I was first mate, your
ladyship remembers, and had to look after them. Some six years agone, I
take it."

"Yes, it all comes back to me now," she answered dreamily "six years--is
it not more than that?"

"No, your ladyship. Just about six."

She paused, rested her head on her hand, and looked at him intently
from beneath the wave of hair that had dropped again about her brow, and
asked: "Why do you still call me 'your ladyship' Stephen?"

"Well, I don't know, your ladyship. Mebbe it's because I've always been
used to it. But I won't if your ladyship doesn't want me to."

"Never mind, it does not matter. It has been so long since I have heard
it that it sounded odd, that was all." She roused herself with an effort
and added, in a brighter tone, changing the topic: "It was very good of
you to come to see Martha. She has me to look after now, and I am afraid
she gets unhappy at times. You cannot think how good she is to me--so
good--so good! I often wake in the night dreaming I am a child again
and stretch out my hand to her, just as I used to do years ago when she
slept beside me. She often speaks of you. I am glad you came to-day."

Carlin had been standing over her all the time, his rough pea-jacket
buttoned across his broad chest, his ruddy sailor's face with its
fringe of gray whiskers, bushy eyebrows, and clear, steady gaze in vivid
contrast to her own shrinking