They turned in time to catch a glimpse of the girl as she parted the curtains and looked out on the road. She saw them looking at her, smiled, blushed, and disappeared. Both men smoked in silence for a moment. Then the captain said:
“Waitin’. Hi hum! nothin’ like it, when you’re waitin’ for the one, is there?”
“No, nothing.”
“Yup. Well, for a pair of old single hulks our age, strikes me we’re gettin’ pretty sentimental. You say you wonder I’d trust Caroline to another man; I wouldn’t to the average one. But Jim Pearson’s all right. You’ll say so, too, when you know him as well as I do.”
“I’ll trust your judgment, any time. So you won’t tell Steve yet awhile that he’s not broke?”
“No. And Caroline won’t tell him, either. Steve’s doin’ fust-rate as he is. He’s in the pickle tub and ’twill do him good to season a spell longer. But I think he’s goin’ to be all right by and by. Say, Sylvester, this New York cruise of mine turned out pretty good, after all, didn’t it?”
“Decidedly good. It was the making of your niece and nephew. Caroline realizes it now; and so will Steve later on.”
“Hope so. It didn’t do me any harm,” with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t have missed that little beat up the bay with Marm Dunn for a good deal. For a spell there we was bows abreast, and ’twas hard to tell who’d turn the mark first. Heard from the Dunns lately?”
“No. Why, yes, I did hear that they were in a tighter box than ever, financially. The smash will come pretty soon.”
“I’m sorry. The old lady’ll go down with colors nailed to the mast, I’ll bet; and she’ll leave a lot of suds where she sank. Do you know, I never blamed her so much. She was built that way. She’s consider’ble like old Mrs. Patience Blodgett, who used to live up here to the Neck; like her—only there never was two people more different. Pashy was the craziest blue-ribboner you ever saw. Her one idea in life was gettin’ folks to sign the pledge. She married Tim Blodgett, who was the wust soak in the county—he’d have figgered out, if you analyzed him, about like a bottle of patent medicine, seventy-two per cent alcohol. Well, Pashy married him to reform him, and she made her brags that she’d get him to sign the pledge. And she did, but only by puttin’ it in front of him when he was too drunk to read it.”