Miss Carter raised her eyebrows with a toplofty expression never before seen upon her face.
“Indeed!” she said.
The unhappy man could not imagine in what way he had offended her, but he had no doubt that she was offended. He felt that he must go on explaining.
“You see,” he said, “it’s this.”
From the pocket of his coat he brought out an advertisement. Miss Carter glanced at it, and saw that on the 8th of July, at Rhodes’s dock, two schooners were to be sold “as is where is.”
“Indeed!” she said again.
He gave up then, and relapsed into total silence.
“Very well!” said Miss Carter, but not aloud. “Go home, then, and stay there! I wish you’d never left your home! Maude was happy before you came. Oh, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
She looked at him, and to save her life she couldn’t help feeling just a little sorry for him. He had such a bewildered and miserable air.
“After all,” she thought, “he’s a guest.”