“I am sure I should like him,” he said. “He seems like a very nice young man.”
Lulie nodded radiantly.
“Oh, he is,” she cried. “Truly he is, Mr. Bangs. Why, every one says—” Then, becoming aware of her enthusiasm, she blushed and begged pardon. “You see, I hear so much against him—from father, I mean—that I couldn't help acting silly when you praised him. Do forgive me, won't you, Mr. Bangs?”
He would have forgiven her much more than that.
“I shall make it a point to go over to the South Wellmouth station and call upon him,” he told her. She thanked him.
“I am hoping that you and Martha and Nelson and I may spend an evening together pretty soon,” she said. “You see, father—but there, that's another secret. I'll tell you in a little while, next week, I hope.”
He learned the secret from Martha. On a day in the following week Miss Phipps informed her lodger that he and she were to have supper at the light keeper's that evening.
“It's a real sort of party,” declared Martha. “Small but select, as they used to say in books when I was a girl. There will be four of us, you and I and Nelson Howard and Lulie.”
Galusha was surprised.
“Nelson Howard!” he repeated. “Why, dear me, I thought—I understood that Mr. Howard was persona non grata to Captain Hallett.”