“Well?”

“That was the words:  as how it was their united wish—­adding ’in all weathers.’”

“And, the next news, it’s playin’ tunes in a ditch,” pursued Captain Tobias.

“I think I can explain,” put in Mrs Bosenna sweetly, hastening to close up the little breach which, for some reason or other, had suddenly opened between these two good friends.  “Captain Hocken, being cumbered with the box on his way to pay me a visit, hid it in the bushes here for a time, meaning to recover it on his way back to the station.”

“That’s so, ma’am,” Captain Cai corroborated her.

“But having misjudged the time, and in his hurry to meet you—­good friend that he is—­Oh, Captain Hunken, if you could have heard the way he spoke of you!  What he led me to expect—­not,” she added prettily, “that I admit to being disappointed.”

“Go on, ma’am,” said Captain Tobias sturdily.  But in truth it had come to his turn to look ashamed.

“Well, you see, in his haste he forgot it.  And now he brings you back to fetch it—­am I not right?”

“Not exactly, ma’am,” confessed Captain Cai.  “The truth is—­”

“Well, you shall hear how meantime we happened on it. . . .  We are very particular about our cream, here at Rilla:  and with this warm weather coming on, Dinah has been telling me it’s time we stood the pans out in running water.  Haven’t you, Dinah?”

Dinah smoothed her print gown.  It was not for her to admit here that early in the day from an upper window she had been watching for Captain Hocken’s approach, had witnessed it, had witnessed also the act of concealment, and had faithfully reported it to her mistress.

“So,” continued Mrs Bosenna hardily, “reckoning that the bed of the stream may have been choked by what the winter rains carry down, and this being our favourite place for the pans, under the cool of the bridge, down happens Dinah—­”

“Excuse me, ma’am; but ain’t it rather near the high road?”

“It is, Captain Hunken:  and I have often thought of it at nights.  But the folks are honest in these parts—­extraordinarily honest.”

She broke off, perceiving that Captain Tobias was looking with sudden earnestness at Captain Cai, and that Captain Cai was somewhat awkwardly evading the look.

“Be a man, Caius!” Tobias exhorted his friend.

“It’s—­it’s this way, ma’am,” said Captain Cai sheepishly, after a long pause, diving in his pocket.  “We wasn’t exactly bound to fetch the—­the musical box—­which, Lord forgive me!  I’d forgot for the moment—­but to return this.  How it came to find its way to my pocket I don’t know.”

“And I don’t know, either,” mused Mrs Bosenna, as Dinah helped her to undress that night. (This undressing was, in fact, but a well-worn excuse for mistress and maid to chat and—­due difference of position observed—­exchange confidences before bedtime).  “Captain Hocken is simple-minded, as any one can tell; but not absent-minded by nature.  At least, I hope not.  I hate absent-minded men.”