"If you don't stop tryin' to play smarty I'll go home. What's Matildy
Tripp to me, I'd like to know? And even when Mary Thayer was here I was
old enough to be her dad. But I remember what a nice girl she was and
how the boarders liked her. They used to say she done more than all the
Howes tribe put together to make the Sea Sight House a good hotel. Young
as she was she done most of the housekeepin' and done it well. If the
rest of 'em had been like her you mightn't have had the place yet, Whit.
But what set you to thinkin' about her?"

"Oh, I don't know! Nothin' much; that is--well, I'll tell you some other
time. What became of her?"

"She went up to New Hampshire along with the Howes folks and I ain't
seen her since. Seems to me I did hear she was married. See here, Whit,
what is it about her? Tell a feller; come!"

But Captain Cy refused to gratify his chum's lively curiosity. Also he
refused to go to Simmons's that evening, saying that he was tired and
guessed he'd stay at home and "turn in early." Mr. Tidditt departed
grumbling. After he had gone the captain drew his chair nearer the
center table, took from his pocket a sheet of notepaper, and proceeded
to read what was written on its pages. It was a letter which he had
received nearly a month before and had not yet answered. During the past
week he had read it many times. The writing was cramped and blotted and
the paper cheap and dingy. The envelope bore the postmark of a small
town in Indiana, and the inclosure was worded as follows:


CAPTAIN CYRUS WHITTAKER.