"Don't talk about it, please," said the indignant Miss Drewitt. "I can't
understand why my uncle should have listened to your advice at all; you
must have forced it on him. I'm sure he didn't know how you got it."

"Yes, he did," said the other. "In fact, it was intended for his room at
first. He was quite pleased with it."

"Why did he alter his mind, then?" inquired the girl.

Mr. Tredgold looked suddenly at the opposite wall, but his lips quivered
and his eyes watered. Miss Drewitt, reading these signs aright, was
justly incensed.

"I don't believe it," she cried.

"He said that you didn't know and he did," said Mr. Tredgold,
apologetically. "I talk too much. I'd no business to let out about old
Brown, but I forgot for the moment--sailors are always prone to childish
superstitions."

"Are you talking about my uncle?" inquired Miss Drewitt, with ominous
calm.

"They were his own words," said the other.

Miss Drewitt, feeling herself baffled, sat for some time wondering how to
find fault politely with the young man before her. Her mind was full of
subject-matter, but the politeness easily eluded her. She threw out
after a time the suggestion that his presence at the bedside of sick