The Captain thought of Gussie, and sighed. "Well," he said, with the simple candor of the sea, "I guess there ain't much difference in 'em, married or unmarried." "It's the interference makes me mad," Mrs. North declared, hotly. "Damn the whole crew!" said the Captain; and the old lady laughed delightedly. "Thank you, Alfred!" "My daughter-in-law is crying her eyes out," the Captain sighed. "Tck!" said Mrs. North; "Alfred, you have no sense. Let her cry. It's good for her!" "Oh no," said the Captain, shocked. "You're a perfect slave to her," cried Mrs. North. "No more than you are to your daughter," Captain Price defended himself; and Mrs. North sighed. "We are just real foolish, Alfred, to listen to 'em. As if we didn't know what was good for us." "People have interfered with us a good deal, first and last," the Captain said, grimly. The faint color in Mrs. North's cheeks suddenly deepened. "So they have," she said. The Captain shook his head in a discouraged way; he took his pipe out of his pocket and looked at it absent-mindedly. "I suppose I can stay at home, and let 'em get over it?" "Stay at home? Why, you'd far better--" "What?" said the Captain. "Come oftener!" cried the old lady. "Let 'em get over it by getting used to it." Captain Price looked doubtful. "But how about your daughter?" Mrs. North quailed. "I forgot Mary," she admitted. "I don't bother you, coming to see you, do I?" the Captain said, anxiously. "Why, Alfred, I love to see you. If our children would just let us alone!" "First it was our parents," said Captain Price. He frowned heavily. "According to other people, first we were too young to have sense; and now we're too old." He took out his worn old pouch, plugged some shag into his pipe, and struck a match under the mantel-piece. He sighed, with deep discouragement. Mrs. North sighed too. Neither of them spoke for a moment; then the little old lady drew a quick breath and flashed a look at him; opened her lips; closed them with a snap; then regarded the toe of her slipper fixedly. The color flooded up to her soft white hair. The Captain, staring hopelessly, suddenly blinked; then his honest red face slowly broadened into beaming astonishment and satisfaction. "_Mrs. North_--" "Captain Price!" she parried, breathlessly. "So long as our affectionate children have suggested it!" "Suggested--what?" "Let's give 'em something to cry about!" "Alfred!" "Look here: we are two old fools; so they say, anyway. Let's live up to their opinion. I'll get a house for Cyrus and Gussie--and your girl can live with 'em, if she wants to!" The Captain's bitterness showed then. "She could live here," murmured Mrs. North. "What do you say?" The little old lady laughed excitedly, and shook her head; the tears stood in her eyes. "Do you want to leave Old Chester?" the Captain demanded. "You know I don't," she said, sighing. "She'd take you away to-morrow," he threatened, "if she knew I had--I had--"