“Why did he alter his mind, then?” inquired the girl.

Mr. Tredgold looked suddenly at the opposite wall, but his lips quivered and his eyes watered.  Miss Drewitt, reading these signs aright, was justly incensed.

“I don’t believe it,” she cried.

“He said that you didn’t know and he did,” said Mr. Tredgold, apologetically.  “I talk too much.  I’d no business to let out about old Brown, but I forgot for the moment—­sailors are always prone to childish superstitions.”

“Are you talking about my uncle?” inquired Miss Drewitt, with ominous calm.

“They were his own words,” said the other.

Miss Drewitt, feeling herself baffled, sat for some time wondering how to find fault politely with the young man before her.  Her mind was full of subject-matter, but the politeness easily eluded her.  She threw out after a time the suggestion that his presence at the bedside of sick people was not likely to add to their comfort.

Captain Bowers entered before the aggrieved Mr. Tredgold could think of a fitting reply, and after a hasty greeting insisted upon his staying for a cup of tea.  By a glance in the visitor’s direction and a faint smile Miss Drewitt was understood to endorse the invitation.

The captain’s satisfaction at finding them together was complete, but a little misunderstanding was caused all round, when Mr. Tasker came in with the tea, by the series of nods and blinks by which the captain strove to call his niece’s attention to various facial and other differences between his servant and their visitor.  Mr. Tredgold, after standing it for some time, created a little consternation by inquiring whether he had got a smut on his nose.

The captain was practically the only talker at tea, but the presence of two attentive listeners prevented him from discovering the fact.  He described his afternoon’s ramble at such length that it was getting late by the time they had finished.

“Stay and smoke a pipe,” he said, as he sought his accustomed chair.

Mr. Tredgold assented in the usual manner by saying that he ought to be going, and instead of one pipe smoked three or four.  The light failed and the lamp was lit, but he still stayed on until the sound of subdued but argumentative voices beyond the drawn blind apprised them of other visitors.  The thin tones of Mr. Chalk came through the open window, apparently engaged in argument with a bear.  A faint sound of hustling and growling, followed by a gentle bumping against the door, seemed to indicate that he—­or perhaps the bear—­was having recourse to physical force.

“Come in,” cried the captain.

The door opened and Mr. Chalk, somewhat flushed, entered, leading Mr. Stobell.  The latter gentleman seemed in a surly and reluctant frame of mind, and having exchanged greetings subsided silently into a chair and sat eyeing Mr. Chalk, who, somewhat nervous as to his reception after so long an absence, plunged at once into conversation.