"Burned!" cried Ramsey, while Hugh, stirred to rise, yet remained. "Was it the Quakeress that—?" But the old man was telling earlier history and she sank repiningly in her seat. "You're going backward," she softly whined.
"In 'sixteen," he said, "I built the Huntress, and——"
"We already know about that," sighed Ramsey, bracing her feet in old Joy's hands. "I know it from old nursie."
"Ramsey!" murmured her mother.
"In 'seventeen," said the chronicler, "Miss Ramsey's grandfather built the Hunter. In 'twenty he built the Charioteer——"
"Ain't we ever going to hear about the burning?" laughingly whimpered the girl, but the narrator kept on:
"In 'twenty-one I built the Shepherdess——"
Ramsey all at once revived. "And did the Shepherdess outrun the Charioteer?"
"A trifle, yes."
"Humph!" she said to herself, and twice again, on a higher key and with a grimace at Hugh, "humph!"