"Yes, after a while. I'll go now if you want me to."
"No; never mind. I've got some things to see to."
"Now that," observed Ronald, as the Captain closed the door, "is what I call a true marriage."
"In what way?" asked Mrs. Franklin.
"This deference to a husband's evident wishes. It might have happened to me. Lonesome George comes into the sewing circle and his glad eyes rest on the wife of his bosom. Talk to the crowd a little while and get everybody to feeling good, even though I'm on the verge of starvation. Then I say: 'Darling, are you going back to our humble little home?' and she says: 'Yes, George, dear, when I get good and ready—bye-bye!'"
Mrs. Franklin was eager to ask Katherine how much of their conversation she supposed he had overheard, but he seemed very comfortable where he was, and at last she folded up her work and went home, the Ensign bidding her an affectionate farewell at the door and extending a generous invitation to "come again."
"There, Kitty," he sighed, "at last we are alone. It has seemed so long!"
Katherine turned upon him a look which would have frozen a lesser man than Ronald. "Please call me Mrs. Howard," she requested, icily.
"I can't."