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 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!”
“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.
The little old lady laughed excitedly, and shook her head; the tears stood in her eyes.
“Do you want to leave Old Chester?” the Captain demanded.
“She'd take you away _to-morrow_,” he threatened, “if she knew I had--I had--”
“Well, then, we've got to get spliced to-morrow.”
“Oh, Alfred, no! I don't believe Dr. Lavendar would--”
“I'll have no dealings with Lavendar,” the Captain said, with sudden stiffness; “he's like all the rest of 'em. I'll get a license in Upper Chester, and we'll go to some parson there.”
Mrs. North's eyes snapped; “Oh, no, no!” she protested; but in another minute they were shaking hands on it.
“Cyrus and Gussie can live by themselves,” said the Captain, joyously, “and I'll get that hold cleaned out; she's kept the ports shut ever since she married Cyrus.”
“And I'll make a cake! And I'll take care of your clothes; you really are dreadfully shabby;” she turned him round to the light, and brushed off some ashes. The Captain beamed. “Poor Alfred! and there's a button off! that daughter-in-law of yours can't sew any more than a cat (and she _is_ a cat!). But I love to mend. Mary has saved me all that. She's such a good daughter--poor Mary. But she's unmarried, poor child.”
However, it was not to-morrow. It was two or three days later that Dr. Lavendar and Danny, jogging along behind Goliath under the buttonwoods on the road to Upper Chester, were somewhat inconvenienced by the dust of a buggy that crawled up and down the hills just a little ahead. The hood of this buggy was up, upon which fact--it being a May morning of rollicking wind and sunshine--Dr. Lavendar speculated to his companion: “Daniel, the man in that vehicle is either blind and deaf, or else he has something on his conscience; in either case he won't mind our dust, so we'll cut in ahead at the watering-trough. G'on, Goliath!”