Mrs. Trimmer stepped back almost frightened. "My brother,"
said she. "Didn't he tell you he was my brother--my brother Bob,
who sailed away a year before I was married, and who has been in
Africa and China and I don't know where? It's so long since I
heard that he'd gone into trading at Singapore that I'd given him
up as married and settled in foreign parts. And here he has come
to me as if he'd tumbled from the sky on this blessed Christmas
morning."

Captain Eli made a step forward, his face very much flushed.

"Your brother, Mrs. Trimmer--did you really say it was your
brother?"

"Of course it is," said she. "Who else could it be?" Then
she paused for a moment and looked steadfastly at the captain.

"You don't mean to say, Captain Eli," she asked, "that you
thought it was--"

"Yes, I did," said Captain Eli, promptly.

Mrs. Trimmer looked straight in the captain's eyes, then she
looked on the ground. Then she changed color and changed back
again.

"I don't understand," she said hesitatingly, "why--I mean what
difference it made."