He tried to tell her why, but his words were merely repetitions of what he had said before. He was not a good business man, he did not know how to handle money, even his own money. The judge had been very ill when he wrote those letters, if he had been well and himself he never would have thought of him as trustee. She listened for a time, her impatience growing. Then she rose. "Very well," she said. "Then I shall not accept the twenty thousand. To me one wish of Judge Knowles' is as sacred as the other. He wanted you to take that trust just as much as he wanted me to have the money. If you won't respect one wish I shall not respect the other." He could not believe she meant it, but she certainly looked and spoke as if she did. He faltered and hesitated, and she pressed her advantage. And at last he yielded. "All right," he said desperately. "All right--or all wrong, whichever it turns out to be. I'll take the trustee job--try it for a time anyhow. But, I tell you, Elizabeth, I'm afraid we're both makin' a big mistake." She was not in the least afraid, and said so. "You have made me very happy, Cap'n Kendrick," she declared. "I can't thank you enough." He shook his head, but before he could reply there came a sharp knock on the outer door, the back door of the house. "Who on earth is that?" exclaimed Sears. Then he shouted, "Come in." The person who came in was George Kent. "Why, George!" said Elizabeth. Then she added. "What is it? What is the matter?" The young man looked as if something was the matter. His expression was not at all pleasant. "Evenin', George," said the captain. "Glad to see you. Sit down." Kent ignored both the invitation and the speaker. "Look here," he demanded, addressing Miss Berry: "do you know what time it is? It is ten o'clock." His tone was so rude--so boyishly rude--that Sears looked up quickly and Elizabeth drew back. "It's nearly ten o'clock," repeated Kent. "And you are over here." "George!" exclaimed Sears, sharply. "You are over here--with him--again." It was Elizabeth who spoke now. She said but one word. "Well?" she asked. There was an icy chill about that "Well?" which a more cautious person that George Kent might have noticed and taken as a warning. But the young man was far from cautious at that moment. "_Well?_" he repeated hotly. "I don't think it's well at all. I come see you and--I find you over here. And I find that every one else knows you are here. And they think it queer, too; I could see that they did.... Of course, I don't say----" "I think you have said enough. I came here to talk with Cap'n Kendrick on a business matter. I told mother where I was going when I left the house. The others heard me, I suppose; I certainly did not try to conceal it. Why should I?" "Why should you? Why, you should because--because---- Well, if you don't know why you shouldn't be here, he does." "He? Cap'n Kendrick?"