“Yes.  Yes, Sam, I suppose I do.”

“Yes.  Well, I—­I don’t know why it never struck me, either.  If Georgianna—­if my wife had been alive, she’d have noticed, I’ll bet, but I didn’t.  ‘Twas only last evenin’; when he came to get her to go to the pictures, that it came across me, you might say, like—­like a wet, cold rope’s end’ slappin’ me in the face.  I give you my word, Jed, I—­I kind of shivered all over.  She means—­she means somethin’ to me, that little girl and—­and—­”

He seemed to find it hard to go on.  Jed leaned forward.

“I know, Sam, I know,” he said.  His friend nodded.

“I know you do, Jed,” he said.  “I don’t think there’s anybody else knows so well.  I’m glad I’ve got you to talk to.  I cal’late, though,” he added, with a short laugh, “if some folks knew I came here to—­to talk over my private affairs they’d think I was goin’ soft in the head.”

Jed smiled, and there was no resentment in the smile.

“They’d locate the softness in t’other head of the two, Sam,” he suggested.

“I don’t care where they locate it.  I can talk to you about things I never mention to other folks.  Guess it must be because you—­you—­ well, I don’t know, but it’s so, anyhow. . . .  Well, to go ahead, after the young folks had gone I sat there alone in the parlor, in the dark, tryin’ to think it out.  The housekeeper had gone over to her brother’s, so I had the place to myself.  I thought and thought and the harder I thought the lonesomer the rest of my life began to look.  And yet—­and yet I kept tellin’ myself how selfish and foolish that was.  I knew ‘twas a dead sartinty she’d be gettin’ married some time.  You and I have laughed about it and joked about it time and again.  And I’ve joked about it with her, too.  But—­ but jokin’s one thing and this was another. . . .  Whew!”

He drew a hand across his forehead.  Jed did not speak.  After a moment the captain went on.

“Well,” he said, “when she got home, and after he’d gone, I got Maud to sit on my knee, same as she’s done ever since she was a little girl, and she and I had a talk.  I kind of led up to the subject, as you might say, and by and by we—­well, we talked it out pretty straight.  She thinks an awful sight of him, Jed.  There ain’t any doubt about that, she as much as told me in those words, and more than told me in other ways.  And he’s the only one she’s ever cared two straws for, she told me that.  And—­and—­well, I think she thinks he cares for her that way, too, although of course she didn’t say so.  But he hasn’t spoken to her yet.  I don’t know, but—­but it seemed to me, maybe, that he might be waitin’ to speak to me first.  I’m his—­er—­boss, you know, and perhaps he may feel a little—­little under obligations to me in a business way and that might make it harder for him to speak.  Don’t it seem to you maybe that might be it, Jed?”

Poor Jed hesitated.  Then he stammered that he shouldn’t be surprised.  Captain Sam sighed.