'And isn't she coming?' he asks very quick, looking at me full, with
his blue eyes.

'I hope you won't take it hard, Mr. Halibut,' says I, 'but she said
she'd rather not come.'

'Confound it!' says he.

'You see,' I went on, 'it's a long time since you was at home, and
you not writing or anything, and some girls are very flighty and
changeable; and she told me to tell you she was sorry if you were
mistaken in her feelings about you, and she's had time to think
things over since three years ago; and now you're so well off, she
says she's sure you'll find no difficulty in getting a girl suited
to your mind.'

'Did she say that?' he said, looking at me very straight. 'It's not
like her.'

'I don't mean she said so in those words, or that she told me to
tell you so; but that's what I made out to be her mind from what she
said between us two like.'

'But what message did she send to me? For I suppose she sent you to
meet me to-day.'

Then I saw that I should have to be very careful. So to get a little
time I says, 'I don't quite like to tell you, Mr. Halibut, what she
said.'