“She went just about half an hour before you came in,” replied the housekeeper. “Elizabeth went soon after you did, but her mother stopped on. She went very suddenly when she did go, and was very mysterious about it. Not that I want to know her business.” “Mysterious?” faltered the captain. “Some young man came to the door,” continued the innocent woman, “and they were talking in a low voice. I don’t know who it was, because Mrs. Banks let me see quite plainly that she didn’t want me to know. Then she just called out ‘Goodnight,’ and went off as fast as you please.” Captain Barber supported himself for a moment by the handle of his door, and then in a dazed way blundered into his room. He was a good-hearted man in a way, and pushing open the little casement he thrust out his head and sighed with genuine feeling as he thought of his poor old friend plodding slowly to Mapleden. Incidentally he felt a little bit sorry for Mr. William Green. He was awakened next morning after a somewhat restless night by the sounds of an unwonted noise downstairs, and lay in amazement listening to a hum of excited voices below. Knuckles rapped on his door and the voice of Mrs. Church, much agitated, requested him to rise and attire himself. He was out of bed at that and looking from the window. A small group of children stood in the road outside the house, while Joe and the cook with their arms on the fence were staring hard at his parlour window, occasionally varying the proceedings by a little conversation with the people next door, who were standing in their front garden. In a state of considerable agitation he hurriedly dressed himself and went downstairs. His sitting-room was full. Mrs. Banks, looking very tired, was sitting in the armchair taking smelling-salts at intervals, and staring fiercely at Mr. William Green, who was huddled in a corner smiling sheepishly behind Captain Nibletts and Ben. “What’s all this?” demanded Captain Barber, in a trembling voice, as his eye met Mr. Green’s. Several of Mrs. Banks’s relatives began speaking at once, assisted by some of the neighbours. The substance of their remarks was that a man whose polite tongue hid the falseness of his heart, had lured Mrs. Banks for a four-mile walk to Mapleden late the preceding night under the pretence that Captain Barber, who was evidently hale and hearty, was lying ill at the Cauliflower. They demanded his immediate dismissal from the ship and his exemplary punishment by the law. “What ’ave you got to say to this?” demanded Captain Barber of the villain, in tones of righteous indignation tempered by fear. “It isn’t true, sir,” said Mr. Green, respectfully. “I didn’t say anything of the kind.” “Wot did you say, then?” enquired Captain Barber, in a voice which the company thought far too mild for the occasion. “She was standing at the door as I passed,” said Mr. Green, nervously, “and I asked her to go for a walk with me.”