Ben Bowles skillfully preserved an air of unconsciousness of the clashing in the domestic circle. Mrs. Bowles seemed for a moment likely to acquiesce without demur in the rule of the stronger. Then a flush rose through her clear olive skin, and overspread her blunt features. Her strong white teeth showed in a satiric smile. That added significant glitter in her small dark eyes struck Jepson’s attention. As he held the powder-horn in his hand he paused, and looked down intently at her. She noted his glance. Her desire to harass was strong, but she could not restrain her caustic tongue, or she might have baffled his curiosity. “Keep on, Teck,” she said sarcastically, “keep on the way ye air a-goin’. Set pore leetle Bob up thar ter ketch his death o’ cold, an’ take an axe an’ hack me an’ Ben up, an’ set the house afire, an’—_ennything_! Ye air ekal ter _ennything_ arter what we hev hearn ter-day.” “Hearn what, ter-day?” he asked, marveling how the news of the disaster had reached these untrodden, secluded wilds. “Oh, nuthin’,” she said, flashing her eyes at him. “Laws-a-massy, M’ria,” Ben Bowles ventured to remonstrate,—he would fain have ignored the whole incident,—“let Teck tell us just what did happen. Mought be some mistake.” She laughed, and sneered too. “Toler’ble large-sized mistake, sartin, ter kill Eli Strobe jes’ kase his darter wouldn’t marry ye—turned ye off! Gals air choosers one time in thar lives, ennyhow.” She tossed her head with a lively relish of this limited ascendency. Jepson was shaken with a wild fear that they had had later news from the Cove than he. Then he remembered that no one had entered or left the room since his return. “Eli Strobe warn’t dead whenst I left Brumsaidge,” he replied calmly. “Thar, now, M’ria, what did I tell ye?” expostulated Bowles. “Ye tole me,” she perversely retorted, “ez Teck war too sharp an’ smart ter git inter enny sech trouble, even ef he warn’t none too good fur it.” Jepson recognized the facile temporizing of Bowles in this, and he noted the quick flush on the cheek of the master of the house, attesting the veracity of his wife’s speech.