"I had supper long ago, but really I think I can take something more," said Mrs. Townsend, drawing her chair nearer to the table. "Of course you can, my dear lady; in this cold fall weather people ought to eat twice as much as they do in warm. Let me give you a piece of this ham, your own curing, I dare say." "Yes: my poor husband was very fond of it. He used to say that no one understood curing ham and drying beef better than I." "He was a most sensible man, I am sure. I drink your health, ma'am, in this cider." He took a long draught, and set down his glass. "It is like nectar." The widow was feeding Bose and the cat (who thought they were entitled to a share of every meal eaten in the house), and did not quite hear what he said. "Fine dog, ma'am, and a very pretty cat." "They were my husband's favorites," and a sigh followed the answer. "Ah, your husband must have been a very happy man." The blue eyes looked at her so long, that she grew flurried. "Is there anything more I can get for you, sir?" she asked, at last. "Nothing, thank you; I have finished." She rose to clear the things away. He assisted her, and somehow their hands had a queer knack of touching as they carried the dishes to the pantry shelves. Coming back to the kitchen, she put the apples and cider in their old places, and brought out a clean pipe and a box of tobacco from an arched recess near the chimney. "My husband always said he could not sleep after eating supper late unless he smoked," she said. "Perhaps you would like to try it." "Not if it is to drive you away," he answered, for she had her candle in her hand. "Oh, no; I do not object to smoke at all." She put the candle down; some faint suggestion about "propriety" troubled her, but she glanced at the old clock, and felt reassured. It was only half-past nine. The stranger pushed the stand back after the pipe was lit, and drew her easy-chair a little nearer the fire, and his own. "Come, sit down," he said, pleadingly; "it's not late, and when a man has been knocking about in California and all sorts of places, for a score of years, he is glad enough to get into a berth like this, and to have a pretty woman to speak to once again."