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We tasted a "grilled sole" for the first time, and although Hephzy persisted in referring to it as "fried flatfish" we liked the taste.
"And the variety is amazing," he declared. "Oats and wheat and corn! My word! I felt like some sort of animal a horse, by Jove! We feed our horses that sort of thing over here, Miss Cahoon." Hephzy sniffed. "So do we," she admitted, "but we eat 'em ourselves, sometimes, when they're cooked as they ought to be. I think some breakfast foods are fine." "Do you indeed? What an extraordinary taste!
I interrupted. "My wife!" I repeated. "Hephzy, what are you talking about? Do you mean " "I mean that you and she might be married right off, to-day perhaps. Then everything would be all right." I stared at her. "But but she wouldn't consent," I stammered. "It is impossible. She wouldn't think of such a thing." Hephzy nodded. "Oh, yes, she would," she said. "She is thinkin' of it now.
"Hephzy," said I, "when we meet Little Frank over there in France, or wherever he may be, you will want him to be favorably impressed with your appearance, won't you? These things cost money of course, but we must think of Little Frank. He has never seen his American relatives and so much depends on a first impression." Hephzy regarded me with suspicion.
Morley was skipper of the Cahoon house, Ardelia first mate, her father a passenger, and the foremast hand was Hephzy. And yet, so far as "running" that house was concerned the foremast hand ran it, as she always had done. The Captain and Ardelia were Morley's willing slaves; Hephzy was, and continued to be, a free woman.
Again I thought of Mrs. Briggs and again I kept my thoughts to myself. Hephzy went on rhapsodizing. I paid little attention until I heard her speak my name. "And Hosy thinks so, too. Don't you, Hosy?" she said. I answered yes, on the chance. Frances regarded me oddly. "I thought I understood that your name was Kent, Mr. Knowles," she said. "It is." "Then why does Miss Cahoon always "
HE commit suicide!" sniffed Hephzy when she read me the letter. "He thinks too much of his miserable self ever to hurt it. But, oh dear! I wish Pa had told me of this letter instead of hidin' it away. I might have sent somethin', not to him, but to poor, motherless Little Frank." She had tried; that is, she had written to the French address, but her letter had been returned.
If I don't hear from you by that time I shall take it for granted that you have made it up in the wrong way and I'll be here on Saturday. I'll keep the process up week in and week out until you give in. That's MY promise. Come on. We must be moving." He said good-by to Hephzy and we walked together to the station. His last words as we shook hands by the car steps were: "Remember think.
THEN you won't laugh." "No, Hephzy," I admitted, resignedly, "I won't laugh then, I promise you. If I ever reach the stage where I see a Little Frank I promise you I sha'n't laugh. I'll believe diseases of the brain are contagious, like the measles, and I'll send for a doctor." The captain met us again in the dining-room that evening. He came over to our table and chatted for some time.
It developed that the terms, which I had considered rather too high for my purse, included the servants' wages, vegetables from the garden, strawberries and other "small fruit" everything. Even food for the horse was included in that all-embracing rent. As Hephzy said, everything considered, the rent of Mayberry Rectory was lower than that of a fair-sized summer cottage at Bayport.
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