“Come,” interrupted Jessie, taking Ruth by the hand. “Come to our room!”
Regardless of all propriety, the sisters hurried Ruth off to their bedroom to have it out with her there, leaving young Dalton to face the captain.
“I congratulate you, my lad,” said the captain, frankly extending his hand. “Sit down.”
Dalton as frankly shook the hand and thanked the captain, as he took a seat beside him.
“I’m deeply grieved, Captain Bream, to see you so much reduced, yet rejoiced to find that you are fairly convalescent.”
“Humph! I wouldn’t give much for the depth of either your grief or joy on my account seein’ that you’ve managed to get hooked on to an angel.”
“Well, I confess,” said the youth, with a laugh, “that the joy connected with that fact pretty much overwhelms all other feelings at present.”
“The admission does you credit boy, for she is an angel. I’m not usin’ figures o’ speech. She’s a real darlin’, A1 at Lloyd’s. True blue through and through. And let me tell you, young fellow, that I know her better than you do, for I saw her before you were bor—, no, that couldn’t well be, but I knew her father before you were born, and herself ever since she saw the light.”
“I’m delighted to have your good opinion of her, though, of course, it cannot increase my estimation of her character. Nothing can do that!”
“Which means that my opinion goes for nothing. Well, the conceit of the rising generation is only equalled by—by that o’ the one that went before it. But, now, isn’t it strange that you are the very man I want to see?”