must say I thought he was a real likely young feller."

"I am glad you thought so. So do I. Has Mary written you of his calls
here?"

"Oh, yes, ma'am, she's written. She ain't the kind of girl to keep
anything back from us; at least, if she is, she's changed a heap since
she came away to school. She's told us about his comin' here and about
you and him and her goin' to that--what-d'ye-call-it--hookey game. She
wrote all about that 'way last February."

"Yes, we did go to the hockey game. Samuel, my cousin John Keith's boy,
played in it. Now, Captain Gould, I have a suggestion to make. It has
been some years since you met Crawford Smith and I think, everything
considered, you should meet him again and decide for yourself whether
or not you still consider him a proper young person to call upon your
niece. Suppose you dine with us again tomorrow evening and I invite
young Smith also. Then--"

But the Captain interrupted. He had a plan of his own for the following
evening and another meal at Mrs. Wyeth's was not a part of it.

"Er--er--excuse me, ma'am," he cut in hastily, "but I had a--a kind of
notion that Mary-'Gusta and me might get our supper at a--a eatin'-house
or somewhere tomorrow night and then maybe we'd take in--I mean go to
a show--a theater, I should say. I didn't know but I'd ask this young
Smith feller to go along. And--and--" remembering his politeness, "of
course we'd be real glad if you'd come, too," he added.

But Mrs. Wyeth, although she thanked him and expressed herself as