“To look out of. About all a young lawyer does is look out of the window. Now about a boarding-place?”
Captain Obed had been waiting for this question.
“I've got a boardin'-place for you, John,” he declared. “The office I may not be so sartin about, but the boardin'-place I am. There ain't a better one this side of Boston and I know it. And the woman who keeps it is—well, you take my word for it she's all RIGHT.”
His passenger regarded him curiously.
“You seem very enthusiastic, Captain,” he observed, with a smile.
Captain Bangs' next remark was addressed to the horse. He gruffly bade the animal “gid-dap” and appeared a trifle confused.
“I am,” he admitted, after a moment. “You'll be, too, when you see her.”
He described the High Cliff House and its owner. Mr. Kendrick asked the terms for board and an “average” room. When told he whistled.
“That isn't high,” he said. “For such a place as you say this is it is very low. But I am afraid it is too high for me. Isn't there any other establishment where they care for men—and poor lawyers?”
“Yes, there is, but you shan't go to it, not if I can stop you. You come right along with me now to the High Cliff and have dinner. Yes, you will. I ain't had a chance to treat you for twenty year and I'm goin' to buy you one square meal if I have to feed you by main strength. Don't you say another word. There! There's east Wellmouth dead ahead of us. And there's the High Cliff House, too. Git dap, Father of your Country! See! He's hungry, too, and he knows what he'll get, same as I do.”