“Ah, my other tenant?—­or tenant in prospect, I ought to say.  He has not arrived yet, I understand.”

“He’s due to-morrow, ma’am, by th’ afternoon train.”

“You must bring him over to Rilla Farm, to call on me,” said Mrs Bosenna graciously.

Captain Cai rubbed his chin.  He was taken at unawares; and not finding the familiar beard under his fingers, grew strangely helpless.  “As for that, ma’am,” he stammered, “I ought to warn you that ‘Bias isn’ easily caught.”

“God defend me!” answered the widow, who had a free way of speaking at times.  “Who wants to catch him?”

“You don’t take my meanin’, ma’am, if you’ll excuse me,” floundered Captain Cai in a sweat.  “I ought to ha’ said that ’Bias, though one in a thousand, is terrible shy with females—­or ladies, as I should say.”

“He’ll be all the more welcome for that,” said Mrs Bosenna relentlessly.  “You must certainly bring him, Captain Hocken.”

Before he could protest further, she had shaken hands, gathered up trowel and kneeling-pad, given them into Dinah’s keeping, unpinned and shaken down the skirt of her black gown, and was gone—­gone up the twilit path, her handmaiden following,—­gone with a fleeting smile that, while ignoring Fancy Tabb, left Captain Cai strangely perturbed, so nicely it struck a balance between understanding and aloofness.

He rubbed his chin, then his ear, then the back of his neck.

“Lord!” he groaned suddenly, “where was my manners?”

“Eh?”

“I never said a word about her affliction.”

“What might that be, in your opinion?”

“Her first husband, o’ course—­or, as I should say, the loss of him.  Shockin’ thing to forget. . . .  I’ve almost a mind now to follow her an’ make my excuses.”

“Do,” said Fancy; “I’d like to hear you start ’pon ’em.”

“Well, you can if you will.  Come over with me to Rilla to-morrow forenoon.  I’ll get leave for you.”

“That’d spoil the fun,” said Fancy, not one risible muscle twitching; “but go you’ll have to.  Mrs Bosenna has left one of her cuffs behind.”

She pointed to a white object on the turf.  Captain Cai stooped, picked it up, and held it gingerly in his hand.

“She didn’ seem a careless sort, neither,” he mused.

“Not altogether,” the child agreed with him.

“Dinah,” said Mrs Bosenna, halting suddenly as they walked homeward in the dusk, “I’ve left one of my cuffs behind!”

“Yes, mistress.”

“‘Yes, mistress,’” Mrs Bosenna mimicked her.  “If ’twas anything belonging to you, you’d be upset enough.”

“I’d have more reason,” said Dinah stolidly.  “Do ’ee want me to run back an’ fetch it?”

“No—­o.”  Her mistress seemed to hesitate. “’Tisn’t worth while; and ten chances to one somebody will find it.”

“That’s what I was thinkin’,” agreed Dinah.