Galusha could not guess what the plan might be, but he was a bit surprised to find himself so willing to agree to the directors’ mandate that he remain in East Wellmouth for the present.  His beloved desk in his beloved study there in Washington had been torn from him, or rather he had been torn from it, and for a time it had really seemed as if the pangs of severance might prove fatal.  By all that was fit and proper he should fiercely resent the order to remain away for another six months.  But he did not resent it fiercely; did not resent it at all; in fact, to be quite honest, he welcomed it.  He was inwardly delighted to be ordered to remain in East Wellmouth.  Such a state of mind was surprising, quite nonunderstandable.

And, day by day and week by week, the fear that his guilty secret concerning the Wellmouth Development stock might be discovered became less and less acute.  Captain Jethro never mentioned it; Martha Phipps, when she found that he preferred not to discuss it, kept quiet, also.  Perhaps, after all, no one would ever know anything about it.  And the change in Martha’s spirits was glorious to see.

He and Lulie Hallett had many quiet talks together.  Ever since the evening of the seance when, partially by craft and partially by luck, he had prevented her father’s discovering young Howard’s presence in the house, she had unreservedly given him her friendship.  And this gift Galusha appreciated.  He had liked her when they first met and the liking had increased.  She was a sensible, quiet, unaffected country girl.  She was also an extremely pretty girl, and when a very pretty girl—­and sensible and unaffected and the rest—­makes you her confidant and asks your advice concerning her love affair and her heart’s most precious secrets, even a middle-aged “mummy duster,” whose interest in the female sex has, until very recently, centered upon specimens of that sex who have been embalmed several thousand years—­even such a one cannot help being gratified by the subtle flattery.

So when Lulie asked his advice Galusha gave it, such as he happened to have in stock, whole-heartedly and without reserve.  He and she had many chats and the subjects of these chats were almost invariably two—­her father and Nelson Howard.  How could she reconcile the one with and to the other?  Mr. Bangs’ council was, of course, to wait and hope, but a council of procrastination is, to say the most, but partially satisfying.

One afternoon, in the middle of May, he met her on the way back from the village and, as they walked on together, he asked her if there were any new developments in the situation.  She looked troubled.

“I don’t exactly know what you mean by developments,” she said.  “If you mean that father is any more reconciled to Nelson, he isn’t, that’s all.  On any other subject he is as nice as he can be.  If I wanted anything in the world, and he had money enough to buy it, I do believe I could have it just for the asking.  That is a good deal to say,” she added, with a half smile, “considering how fond father is of money, but honestly, Mr. Bangs, I think it’s true.”