Hollis stared. Then he gave his silent laugh, and, stretching down one long arm, he laid it on the old man's shoulder soothingly. "There, now; we _are_ awful Yankees up here, all of us, I'm afraid; forever thinking of bargains. Fact is, we ain't high-minded; you _can't_ be, if you are forever eating salt pork." The judge had pulled himself from the other's touch in an instant. But Hollis remained unconscious of any offence. _"'At the battle of the Nile I was there all the while;_ _I was there all the while at the battle of the Nile.'"_ he chanted. _"'At the bat--'_ "Hello, isn't that Miss Bruce coming down the beach? Yes, sure-ly; I know her by the way she carries her head." Detaching his boot-heels from the rail, he sprang down, touching the ground with his long legs wide apart; then, giving his waistcoat a pull over the flatness below it, he looked inquiringly at the judge. But that gentleman ignored the inquiry. "It is time to return, I reckon," he remarked, leading the way inflexibly towards the distant gate and the road. Hollis followed him with disappointed tread. "She won't think us very polite, skooting off in this fashion," he hazarded. The judge vouchsafed him no reply. It was one thing for this backwoodsman to go about with him; it was another to aspire to an acquaintance with the ladies of his family. Poor Hollis aspired to nothing; he was the most modest of men; all the same it would never have occurred to him that he was not on an equality with everybody. They returned to Port aux Pins by the road. The beach was in sight all the way on the left; Eve's figure in three-quarter length was visible whenever Hollis turned his head in that direction, which was often. She gained on them. Then she passed them. "She's a tip-top walker, isn't she? I see her coming in almost every day from 'way out somewhere--she doesn't mind how far. Our ladies here don't walk much; they don't seem to find it interesting. But Miss Bruce, now--she says the woods are beautiful. Can't say I have found 'em so myself." "Have you had any new cases lately?" inquired the judge, coldly. "Did that Paul tell you I was a lawyer? Was once, but have given up practising. I've got an Auction and Commission store now; never took you there because business hasn't been flourishing; sometimes for days together there's been nothing but the skeleton." The judge looked at him. "I don't mean myself! Say, now, did you really think I meant myself?" And he laughed without a sound. "No, this is a real one; it was left with me over a year ago to be sold on commission--medical students, or a college, you know. Man never came back--perhaps he's a skeleton himself in the lake somewhere--so there it hangs still; first-class, and in elegant condition. To-day there are six bonnets to keep it company; so we're full."