“I don't know. I guess likely he has. Perhaps that's why she's been so sort of mournful lately. But never mind whether he has or not; I won't do it and I told him so. He got red hot in a jiffy. I was ungrateful and stubborn and all sorts of things. And I, bein' a Hammond, with some of the Hammond balkiness in me, I set my foot down as hard as his. And we had it until--until--well, until I saw him stagger and tremble so that I actually got scared and feared he was goin' to keel over where he stood. “'Why can't you?' he kept sayin'. 'But WHY can't you? Ain't she a girl anyone would be proud to have for a wife?' 'Course there was no answer to that but yes. Then back he comes again with 'Then why can't you?' At last, bein' frightened, as I said, that he might have another shock or somethin', I said I'd think it over and come away and left him. And I come straight to you. Keziah, what shall I do? What can you say to help me?” Keziah was silent. She was looking, not at her companion, but at the carpet center of one of the braided rugs on the floor. Her face was very grave and the lines about her mouth seemed to deepen. Her hands, clasped in her lap, tightened one upon the other. But her voice was calm when, at last, she spoke. “Nat,” she said, “there's only one thing I can say. And that's what your father said: Why can't you?” The captain sprang from his chair. “What?” he cried incredulously. “What are you sayin'?” “Just what your father said, Nat. Why can't you marry Grace? She's a dear, good girl and--” “That be--keelhauled! Keziah Coffin, you sit there and ask me why I can't marry her! YOU do?” “Yes, Nat.” “Keziah, you're crazy! Don't talk to me like that. We're not jokin' now. You know why I can't marry her, nor anyone else in this round world but you.” “Nat, I can't marry you.” “I know, I know. You're always sayin' that. But you don't mean it. You can't mean it. Why, you and me have been picked out for each other by the Almighty, Keziah. I swear I believe just that. We went together when we were boy and girl, to parties and such. We was promised when I first went to sea. If it hadn't been for that fool row we had--and 'twas all my fault and I know it--you never would have let that da--that miserable Anse Coffin come near you. And when 'twas too late and you'd married him, the mean, drunken, cruel--” “Hush, Nat! hush! Stop it!”