"So you met him up town?"

"Yes, Uncle Abe."

"He's perlite enough," scolded the storekeeper. "But I don't jest fancy
the cut of his jib. Wanted to know if you was goin' to stop here."

"Oh!" exclaimed Louise. "That is what I want to know myself. Am I?"




CHAPTER IV

THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS

Cap'n Abe reached for his spectacles and pulled them down upon his nose
to look at his guest through the lenses. Not that they aided his sight
in the least; but the act helped to cover the fact that he was startled.

"Stop here?" he repeated. "Where's your father? Ain't he with you up
to the Inn?"

"No, Cap'n Abe. He is in Boston to-day. But he will sail to-morrow
for a summer cruise with a party for scientific research. I am all
alone. So I came down here to Cape Cod."

Louise said it directly and as simply as the storekeeper himself might
have spoken. Yet it seemed really difficult for Cap'n Abe to get her
meaning into his head.