"Oh yes, it has! Her daughter said that she had had to speak to her--"
Captain Price, dumfounded, forgot his fear and burst out: "You"re a pack of fools, the whole caboodle! I swear I--"
"Oh, don"t blaspheme!" said Gussie, faintly, and staggered a little, so that all the Captain"s terror returned. _If she fainted!_
"Hi, there, Cyrus! Come aft, will you? Gussie"s getting white around the gills--Cyrus!"
Cyrus came, running, and between them they got the swooning Gussie to her room; Afterwards, when Cyrus tiptoed down-stairs, he found the Captain at the cabin door. The old man beckoned mysteriously.
"Cy, my boy, come in here"--he hunted about in his pocket for the key of the cupboard--"Cyrus, I"ll tell you what happened; that female across the street came in, and told poor Gussie some c.o.c.k-and-bull story about her mother and me!" The Captain chuckled, and picked up his harmonicon.
"It scared the life out of Gussie," he said; then, with sudden angry gravity,--"these people that poke their noses into other"s people"s business ought to be thrashed. Well, I"m going over to see Mrs. North."
And off he stumped, leaving Cyrus staring after him, open-mouthed.
If Mary North had been at home, she would have met him with all the agonized courage of shyness and a good conscience. But she had fled out of the house, and down along the River Road, to be alone and regain her self-control.
The Captain, however, was not seeking Miss North. He opened the front door, and advancing to the foot of the stairs, called up: "Ahoy, there!
Mrs. North!"
Mrs. North came trotting out to answer the summons. "Why, Alfred!" she exclaimed, looking over the banisters, "when did you come in? I didn"t hear the bell ring. I"ll come right down."
"It didn"t ring; I walked in," said the Captain. And Mrs. North came down-stairs, perhaps a little stiffly, but as pretty an old lady as you ever saw. Her white curls lay against faintly pink cheeks, and her lace cap had a pink bow on it. But she looked anxious and uncomfortable.
("Oh," she was saying to herself, "I do hope Mary"s out!)--Well, Alfred?" she said; but her voice was frightened.
The Captain stumped along in front of her into the parlor, and motioned her to a seat. "Mrs. North," he said, his face red, his eye hard, "some jack-donkeys have been poking their noses (of course they"re females) into our affairs; and--"
"Oh, Alfred, isn"t it horrid in them?" said the old lady.
"Darn "em!" said the Captain.
"It makes me mad!" cried Mrs. North; then her spirit wavered. "Mary is so foolish; she says she"ll--she"ll take me away from Old Chester. I laughed at first, it was so foolish. But when she said that--oh _dear_!"
"Well, but, my dear madam, say you won"t go. Ain"t you skipper?"
"No, I"m not," she said, dolefully. "Mary brought me here, and she"ll take me away, if she thinks it best. Best for _me_, you know. Mary is a good daughter, Alfred. I don"t want you to think she isn"t. But she"s foolish. Unmarried women are apt to be foolish."
The Captain thought of Gussie, and sighed. "Well," he said, with the simple candor of the sea, "I guess there ain"t much difference in "em, married or unmarried."
"It"s the interference makes me mad," Mrs. North declared, hotly.
"d.a.m.n the whole crew!" said the Captain; and the old lady laughed delightedly.
"Thank you, Alfred!"
"My daughter-in-law is crying her eyes out," the Captain sighed.
"Tck!" said Mrs. North; "Alfred, you have no sense. Let her cry. It"s good for her!"
"Oh no," said the Captain, shocked.
"You"re a perfect slave to her," cried Mrs. North.
"No more than you are to your daughter," Captain Price defended himself; and Mrs. North sighed.
"We are just real foolish, Alfred, to listen to "em. As if we didn"t know what was good for us."
"People have interfered with us a good deal, first and last," the Captain said, grimly.
The faint color in Mrs. North"s cheeks suddenly deepened. "So they have," she said.
The Captain shook his head in a discouraged way; he took his pipe out of his pocket and looked at it absent-mindedly. "I suppose I can stay at home, and let "em get over it?"
"Stay at home? Why, you"d far better--"
"What?" said the Captain.
"Come oftener!" cried the old lady. "Let "em get over it by getting used to it."
Captain Price looked doubtful. "But how about your daughter?"
Mrs. North quailed. "I forgot Mary," she admitted.
"I don"t bother you, coming to see you, do I?" the Captain said, anxiously.
"Why, Alfred, I love to see you. If our children would just let us alone!"
"First it was our parents," said Captain Price. He frowned heavily.
"According to other people, first we were too young to have sense; and now we"re too old." He took out his worn old pouch, plugged some s.h.a.g into his pipe, and struck a match under the mantel-piece. He sighed, with deep discouragement.
Mrs. North sighed too. Neither of them spoke for a moment; then the little old lady drew a quick breath and flashed a look at him; opened her lips; closed them with a snap; then regarded the toe of her slipper fixedly. The color flooded up to her soft white hair.
The Captain, staring hopelessly, suddenly blinked; then his honest red face slowly broadened into beaming astonishment and satisfaction. "_Mrs.
North_--"
"Captain Price!" she parried, breathlessly.
"So long as our affectionate children have suggested it!"
"Suggested--what?"
"Let"s give "em something to cry about!"
"Alfred!"
"Look here: we are two old fools; so they say, anyway. Let"s live up to their opinion. I"ll get a house for Cyrus and Gussie--and your girl can live with "em, if she wants to!" The Captain"s bitterness showed then.
"She could live here," murmured Mrs. North.