"Didn't like to ask!" Mrs. Tobin sniffed in disgust. "If I'd been in your place I would have found out everything. You don't even know her name, I suppose."
"Oh, yes, I found that out. It's a funny one, Betty Bean."
During this conversation the captain had been rubbing his hands vigorously with the towel. He had to be doing something, so this was just as well as anything else. When he learned that a visitor was at the Hamptons, and that she had met with an accident, he began to fear the worst. Who else could it be but the girl he had taken up river on his boat? But when he heard that her name was Betty Bean he was greatly relieved, hung up the towel, and started for the table. The girl interested him no longer, and it did not matter to him whether John Hampton had a sweetheart or not.
"Come on, an' let's have supper," he ordered. "I'm 'most starved. One would think from the way you two talk that thar is a menagerie over the way. I don't care how many girls John has."
"But I care," his wife retorted. "And what's more, I'm going over this very night to see her myself. You are away from home so much, Sam'l, that you see people and have a good time. But with me it's different. I have to stay right here week in and week out, and see nothing but the same things and the same people. It isn't very often we have a visitor here, especially at the Hamptons. Yes, I'm going over to see and hear what I can."
"Yer right, Martha," the captain agreed. "Ye sartinly do need a change, an' as I told ye comin' from the shore ye must take that trip to Fredericton. It'll do ye a world of good. Flo kin come with me fer a trip, an' it'll be nice to have her to look after things an' cook fer us."
"And leave another comb to give you trouble, daddy," the girl replied, while her eyes twinkled with merriment.
"Sure, sure, I don't mind how many combs ye leave, so long as yer mother lets me alone afterwards."
When supper was ended, Mrs. Tobin rose from the table.
"Come, Sam'l, fix yourself up," she ordered, "and let us go over to see that girl."