“Yes.”

“She looks as if she had seen hard service?”

“Yes; both of us are the worse for wear.”

The ice once broken, Mr. Hawke chimed in—“Have you a wife, Captain Rogers?”

“She’s in the churchyard,” with a decided growl.

“So much the better for Mrs. Rogers,” whispered Lyndsay to Flora.

“You had better let the animal alone,” said Flora in the same tone: “’Tis sworn to silence.”

“Have you any family, Captain Rogers?” recommenced the incorrigible Hawke.

“Ay; more than’s good.”

“Girls, or boys?”