“He is very wide-awake,” he said to his niece.  “There isn’t much that escapes him.”

Miss Drewitt, gazing idly out of window, said that she had not noticed it.

“Very clever at his business, I understand,” said the captain.

His niece said that he had always appeared to her—­when she had happened to give the matter a thought—­as a picture of indolence.

“Ah! that’s only his manner,” replied the other, warmly.  “He’s a young man that’s going to get on; he’s going to make his mark.  His father’s got money, and he’ll make more of it.”

Something in the tone of his voice attracted his niece’s attention, and she looked at him sharply as an almost incredible suspicion as to the motive of this conversation flashed on her.

“I don’t like to see young men too fond of money,” she observed, sedately.

“I didn’t say that,” said the captain, eagerly.  “If anything, he is too open-handed.  What I meant was that he isn’t lazy.”

“He seems to be very fond of coming to see you,” said Prudence, by way of encouragement.

“Ah!” said the captain,” and——­”

He stopped abruptly as the girl faced round.  “And?” she prompted.

“And the crow’s-nest,” concluded the captain, somewhat lamely.

There was no longer room for doubt.  Scarce two months ashore and he was trying his hand at matchmaking.  Fresh from a world of obedient satellites, and ships responding to the lightest touch of the helm, he was venturing with all the confidence of ignorance upon the most delicate of human undertakings.  Miss Drewitt, eyeing him with perfect comprehension and some little severity, sat aghast at his hardihood.

“He’s very fond of going up there,” said Captain Bowers, somewhat discomfited.

“Yes, he and Joseph have much in common,” remarked Miss Drewitt, casually.  “They’re some what alike, too, I always fancy.”

“Alike!” exclaimed the astonished captain.

“Edward Tredgold like Joseph?  Why, you must be dreaming.”

“Perhaps it’s only my fancy,” conceded Miss Drewitt, “but I always think that I can see a likeness.”

“There isn’t the slightest resemblance in the world,” said the captain.  “There isn’t a single feature alike.  Besides, haven’t you ever noticed what a stupid expression Joseph has got?”

“Yes,” said Miss Drewitt.

The captain scratched his ear and regarded her closely, but Miss Drewitt’s face was statuesque in its repose.

“There—­there’s nothing wrong with your eyes, my dear?” he ventured, anxiously—­“short sight or anything of that sort?”

“I don’t think so,” said his niece, gravely.

Captain Bowers shifted in his chair and, convinced that such a superficial observer must have overlooked many things, pointed out several admirable qualities in Edward Tredgold which he felt sure must have escaped her notice.  The surprise with which Miss Drewitt greeted them all confirmed him in this opinion, and he was glad to think that he had called her attention to them ere it was too late.