"Aye," said the captain. "You did."
His eyes came from the mantelpiece and fixed themselves on those of his friend. Mr. Truefitt in a flurried fashion struck a match and applied it to his empty pipe.
"I'll have the law of him," said the captain, fiercely; "he has been spreading false reports about me."
"Reports?" repeated Mr. Truefitt, in a husky voice.
"He has been telling everybody that I am about to be married," thundered the captain.
Mr. Truefitt scratched the little bit of gray whisker that grew by his ear.
"I told him," he said at last.
"You?" exclaimed the amazed captain. "But it isn't true."
Mr. Truefitt turned to him with a smile intended to be arch and reassuring. The result, owing to his nervousness, was so hideous that the captain drew back in dismay.
"It's—it's all right," said Mr. Truefitt at last. "Ah! If it hadn't been for me you might have gone on hoping for years and years, without knowing the true state of her feelings toward you."