gal Elsie! Well! Well! I want to know! If this don't beat all! Set down!
Take your things right off. I'm mighty glad to see you."

Captain Eri's hand, with Miss Preston's hidden in it, was moving up
and down as if it worked by a clock-work arrangement. The young lady
withdrew her fingers from the trap as soon as she conveniently could,
but it might have been noticed that she glanced at them when she had
done so, as if to make sure that the original shape remained.

"Thank you, Captain Hedge," she said. "And now, please tell me about
grandfather. How is he? May I see him?"

The Captain's expression changed to one of concern.

"Why, now, Miss Preston," he said, "your grandpa is pretty sick. Oh, I
don't mean he's goin' to die right off or anything like that," he added
hastily. "I mean he's had a stroke of palsy, or somethin', and he ain't
got so yit that he senses much of what goes on. Now I don't want to
frighten you, you know, but really there's a chance--a leetle mite of
a chance--that he won't know you. Don't feel bad if he don't, now will
you?"

"I knew he must be very ill from your letter," said the girl simply. "I
was afraid that he might not be living when I reached here. They told me
at the station that he was at your house and so I came. He has been very
good to me and I--"

Her voice broke a little and she hesitated. Captain Eri was a picture of
nervous distress.