Hugh cast back a sudden frown but it softened promptly to a smile which old Joy thought wonderfully sweet. "Late sleepers," persisted the commodore, "know what they gain but not what they lose." "Naw yit," audibly soliloquized the nurse, "what dey makes de early riseh lose." She added a soft high-treble "humph!" and gave herself a smile at least as sweet as Hugh's, which he repeated to her as he said: "Good morning, auntie." She courtesied. "Mawnin', suh." They need not have been more cordial had they just signed a great treaty. * * * * * The _Votaress_, swinging westward, left the picture behind, and the neglected exhorter, caring far less for cranes and clouds than for pelicans and sinners, reopened, this time on Hugh: "But that's anotheh thing 'at rises my bristles, ev'm ef it don't the bishop's." "What rises them?" asked the solemn Hugh, the commodore's attention wandering. "Shell I spit it out? Wall, it's folks a-_proj_-eckin' togetheh--church membehs an' non-membehs a-_proj_-eckin' _togetheh_--fo' to drownd Gawd A'mighty's chas-tise_ments_ in the devil's delights. _You_ know they a-layin' fo' to do that on this boat this ve'y evenin'. You know they a-_proj_-eckin' fo' to raise filthy lucre by fiddlin' an' play-actin' an' a-singin' o' worl'ly songs an', to top all, a-dayncin'!--right oveh the heads o' the sick an' dyin', my Gawd! You know that, don't you?" "Yes, I'm mixed up in it." "An' they a-doin' it fo' what? Fo' no betteh reason 'an to he'p them-ah damn' ovehwhelmin' furrinehs to escape the righteous judg-_ments_ o' the Lawd! Young brotheh, my name is Jawn. Jawn the Babtiss, I am, an' as sich I p'otess! An' also an' mo'oveh I p'otess ag'in' any mo' leadin's f'om them-ah 'Piscopaliam play-actohs, an' still mo' f'om that-ah bodacious brick-top gal o' Gid Hayle's. Which she made opem spote o' _my_ leadin's in 'istiddy's meet'n'! An' o' co'se! havin' a popish motheh." "Oh!--my!--Lawd!" gasped Joy, and the commodore had begun to meet protest with protest, when Hugh touched him. "This is too small for you. May I----?" "Take it," said the grandfather and turned inquiringly to the nurse. "Yaas, suh," she hurried to say, "my mist'ess ax de honoh to see you at de stateroom o' Mahs' Basile." Meantime Hugh answered the complainant: "My friend, that young lady--you mustn't call her anything else again--made no sport of you whatever." "Oh, dat she didn't, boss!" put in old Joy, breaking off from her talk with the commodore. "Honestly, sir," continued Hugh, "I was afraid some one would, but I happened to see her from first to last, and----" "Happ'm'd! The hell you happ'm'd! Yo' eyes 'uz dead _sot_ on heh when they'd ought to been upraise' in prah!"