Carolina)--Cyrus, she gave her mother _beef tea!_"

But Cyrus was to receive still further enlightenment on the subject of
his opposite neighbor:

"She called him in. I heard her, with my own ears! 'Alfred,' she said,
'come in.' Cyrus, she has designs; oh, I worry so about it! He ought to
be protected. He is very old, and, of course, foolish. You ought to
check it at once."

"Gussie, I don't like you to talk that way about my father," Cyrus
began.

"You'll like it less later on. He'll go and see her to-morrow."

"Why shouldn't he go and see her to-morrow?" Cyrus said, and added a
modest bad word; which made Gussie cry. And yet, in spite of what his
wife called his "blasphemy," Cyrus began to be vaguely uncomfortable
whenever he saw his father put his pipe in his pocket and go across the
street. And as the winter brightened into spring, the Captain went quite
often. So, for that matter, did other old friends of Mrs. North's
generation, who by and by began to smile at each other, and say, "Well,
Alfred and Letty are great friends!" For, because Captain Price lived
right across the street, he went most of all. At least, that was what
Miss North said to herself with obvious common sense--until Mrs. Cyrus
put her on the right track....

"What!" gasped Mary North. "But it's impossible!"

"It would be very unbecoming, considering their years," said Gussie;