The girl gave him an appraising scrutiny as she walked toward him. While covering those few yards she made up her mind about Tunis on several points. One was that she would not lunch this noon at any cafeteria or automat! "Really," she said, with downcast glance, as the man got into step beside her, "I don't feel that I know you well enough to talk to you at all, Mister--Mister--" "My name's Tunis Latham. I'm owner and skipper of the schooner _Seamew_. I live right handy to your uncle and aunt." "Goodness! You don't mean I've got an uncle and aunt down there on the Cape? I never heard of them." "They are your great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Prue must have been your mother's own aunt." "So you are my Cousin--er--Tunis?" His face flamed and he did not look at her. "That doesn't follow," he said. "Aunt Prue is my aunt only in a manner of speaking. But she is your blood relation." "Yes? I suppose she's a dear old soul?" "They are mighty nice folks," Tunis replied stoutly. "As nice as any in all Barnstable County." "But--er--sort of simple?" The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis flashed her a look that showed comprehension. "Just about as simple as I am," he said. "Oh!" "Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he had the best of it so far. They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At least, not with his present companion. "There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries. But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance. While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed her services. "Goodness! What do they want me for--a nurse?" she demanded tartly. The question put Tunis on his mettle. He explained that Cap'n Ira and his wife were comfortably "fixed," as Cape people considered comfort, with a home free and clear of all encumbrances, and investments that yielded a sufficient support. Ida May, as he understood it, would share their home and their means. "And you want I should go down to that place and live on pollack and potatoes till them folks die, for the sake of just a _home_?" she demanded, her brown eyes snapping. "_I_ don't want you to do anything," he pointed out coolly enough. "I am merely repeating their offer. They are your folks."