Captain Price was so dumfounded that for a moment words failed him. Then he said, meekly, "Does your mother object to tobacco smoke, ma'am?" "It is injurious to all ladies' throats," Miss North explained, her voice quivering and determined. "Does your mother resemble you, madam?" said Captain Price, slowly. "Oh no! my mother is pretty. She has my eyes, but that's all." "I didn't mean in looks," said the old man; "she did not look in the least like you; not in the least! I mean in her views?" "Her views? I don't think my mother has any particular views," Miss North answered, hesitatingly; "I spare her all thought," she ended, and her thin face bloomed suddenly with love. Old Chester rocked with the Captain's report of his call; and Mrs. Cyrus told her husband that she only wished this lady would stop his father's smoking. "Just look at his ashes," said Gussie; "I put saucers round everywhere to catch 'em, but he shakes 'em off anywhere--right on the carpet! And if you say anything, he just says, 'Oh, they'll keep the moths away!' I worry so for fear he'll set the house on fire." Mrs. Cyrus was so moved by Miss North's active mission-work that the very next day she wandered across the street to call. "I hope I'm not interrupting you," she began, "but I thought I'd just--" "Yes; you are," said Miss North; "but never mind; stay, if you want to." She tried to smile, but she looked at the duster which she had put down upon Mrs. Cyrus's entrance. Gussie wavered as to whether to take offence, but decided not to--at least not until she could make the remark which was buzzing in her small mind. It seemed strange, she said, that Mrs. North should come, not only to Old Chester, but right across the street from Captain Price! "Why?" said Mary North, briefly. "_Why?_" said Mrs. Cyrus, with faint animation. "Gracious! is it possible that you don't know about your mother and my father-in-law?" "Your father-in-law?--my mother?" "Why, you know," said Mrs. Cyrus, with her light cackle, "your mother was a little romantic when she was young. No doubt she has conquered it by this time. But she tried to elope with my father-in-law." "What!" "Oh, bygones should be bygones," Mrs. Cyrus said, soothingly; "forgive and forget, you know. I have no doubt she is perfectly--well, perfectly correct, now. If there's anything I can do to assist you, ma'am, I'll send my husband over"; and then she lounged away, leaving poor Mary North silent with indignation. But that night at tea Gussie said that she thought strong-minded ladies were very unladylike; "they say she's strong-minded," she added, languidly. "Lady!" said the Captain. "She's a man-o'-war's-man in petticoats." Gussie giggled. "She's as flat as a lath," the Captain declared; "if it hadn't been for her face, I wouldn't have known whether she was coming bow or stern on." "I think," said Mrs. Cyrus, "that that woman has some motive in bringing her mother back here; and _right across the street_, too!"