Nabby Gifford did not serve her employer’s breakfast next morning. Ellen Dooley, the red-cheeked Irish “second maid,” did that. Nabby cooked the breakfast, of course, and she made it a point to pass through the library after the meal was over. Foster Townsend was seated in the leather easy-chair reading the _Item_, a copy of which was included in the mail handed him by Millard Clark at the post office the previous evening. Mrs. Gifford lingered by the hall door and the captain looked up at her over his spectacles. “Well, Nabby,” he inquired, “what is it?” Nabby affected surprise at the question. “Why, nothin’,” she said. “I was just goin’ upstairs a minute and I come this way ’cause ’twas the shortest. That’s all.” “Yes, yes, I know. That’s all--but what is the rest?” “Well--I was goin’ to tell you that the minister was here last night right after you left.” “I know he was. I met him downtown and he told me he called. What else?” “Nothin’ else--except-- Well, I was wonderin’ if you’d thought over what I said to you last night about--” She finished the sentence with a wink and a jerk of the head in the direction of the dining room, where Ellen was clearing the table. At that moment the second maid departed to the kitchen with a double handful of dishes and Nabby seized the opportunity to come close to the easy-chair. “She never got home from that Odd Fellers’ ball till one o’clock this mornin’,” Nabby announced, in an indignant whisper. “Quarter past one ’twas when she come up the back stairs. Any self-respectin’ Christian is sound asleep at that ungodly time of night, and thinks I--” “Wait a minute. How did you know it was quarter past one?” “Because I looked at my alarm clock and see ’twas, that’s how. And I woke up Varunas and he see it, too.” “Humph! I always thought you were a Christian, Nabby.” “Eh? Well, I am. Anyhow I _hope_ I am. Who said I wasn’t?” “You just told me that every self-respecting Christian was asleep at that hour.... Oh, never mind! Did Varunas behave like a Christian when you woke him up?” Mrs. Gifford’s face expressed horrified consternation. “My soul!” she exclaimed. “Don’t tell me _you_ could hear what he said away off in the front of the house, Cap’n Foster!” “All right, Nabby. You leave Ellen to me. If I decide to take your advice and keep only one girl I’ll let you know. If I don’t we’ll go on as we are. And I may have a surprise for you pretty soon, anyway. Where’s Varunas now?”