It was then the vision attending his homecoming had begun to fade. 'Liphalet thought of it now, after ten years of dragging time had passed, and the contemplation of his disappointment was bitter indeed. He had already at the time of his leaving the sea, bought the little house beside the Mariner's Chapel. He had intended redecorating and furnishing it anew throughout. Then he would speak his mind to Sue Ambrose; for although 'Liphalet Truitt was a modest man, he was a direct one, and he had reason to believe that Miss Sue would not say him nay. But an heiress with forty thousand dollars! The blow, as 'Liphalet admitted now, almost "hove him on his beam ends." "How could a fellow with his little tad of money," he asked himself, "have the cheek to pop the question to Miss Sue? Why! every enduring person, up and down the Cape, would say he was after her fortune. Worst of all, the Doc's sister might herself think so!" This withering shock to his hopes, however, did not altogether scuttle the ex-steward. Miss Sue was quite as demurely friendly at his approach as ever. Accession of great wealth had made little change it seemed in her mode of life. She remained her busy brother's housekeeper. Merely she wore silk instead of gingham and real lace instead of the product of her own skillful needles. On every hand the ex-steward was told of Miss Sue's fortune, for it was delicious gossip. Miss Sue did not mention it herself. Forty thousand dollars, compared with what he had invested and had on deposit in the Paulmouth National Bank, was as a mountain to a molehill--or so it seemed to Eliphalet Truitt. So he had never spoken to Sue Ambrose in all these ten years as he had desired to speak. She had gone her modest, kindly, charitable way, making little display of her wealth--one of those sincere, self-contained souls, the depths of whose hidden natures are not easily fathomed. 'Liphalet had gradually fallen into the doldrums--a place of calms and baffling airs. He had never refurnished the old house, or changed its inner or outer appearance in any particular. For an old bachelor, living alone, it was good enough! His secret desire to be near Sue Ambrose led him to enter church work with more enthusiasm than he otherwise might have done. Nor had this fact grated on him until of late.