"She'd be turning herself out," said the captain.
"Of course, there is the chance she might marry again," said the other, slowly. "She's had several chances, but she refused 'em all."
"From what she said one day," said the captain, "I got the idea that she has kept from marrying all these years for your sake."
Mr. Truefitt put his pipe down on the table and stared blankly before him. "That's the worst of it," he said, forlornly; "but something will have to be done. I've been engaged three weeks now, and every time I spend a few minutes with Cecilia—Miss Willett—I have to tell a lie about it."
"You do it very well," said his friend. "Very well indeed."
"And Susanna regards me as the most truthful man that ever breathed," continued Mr. Truefitt.
"You've got a truthful look about you," said the captain. "If I didn't know you so well I should have thought the same."
Unconscious of Mr. Truefitt's regards he rose and, leaning his arm on the fence at the bottom of the garden, watched the river.
"Miss Willett thinks she might marry again," said Mr. Truefitt, picking up his pipe and joining him. "She'd make an excellent wife for anybody—anybody."
The captain assented with a nod.