It was at this point that Charlotte brought forth from the chair behind her a voluminous broadcloth cape, such as men then wore for outer wrap, and spread it on the mahogany centre-table. "It's perfectly good, if you did discard it, and I'm going to cut it into something for Willy; I didn't tell Adele I never had tried, she is so capable, but I borrowed her patterns." And Charlotte brought forth a paper roll. The Captain, in the arm-chair, sat and watched. Alexina, from his knee, where he had a way of lifting her, watched too. Willy, from a perch on the arm of the sofa, offered suggestions. This was early in the afternoon. At six o'clock the Captain, lighting another of an uninterrupted series of cigars, was still watching silently. On the sofa sat Charlotte, in tears. On the table, tailor fashion, sat King William, sorting patterns, while Nelly, who had come for Alexina, stood by and directed. "How does he know?" Mrs. Leroy, watching her son a little anxiously, asked the Captain. "I wouldn't like him to develop such a bent. He doesn't get it from you--or from me." "I look at my legs," said William, "and then I build it that way." Another afternoon the Captain looked up from his smoking and spoke to Charlotte. The children were on the floor turning the pages of a picture paper. "We have succeeded in securing the loan on a mortgage on the boat. Cowan arranged it through his bank. It was at a higher rate than we had agreed on, but we'd lost all the time we could spare. We'll push ahead now and have things finished by spring." That night, over at the Blairs', as Alexina climbed into her place at the table Austen was speaking to Harriet. "You remember I told you I was looking for an investment of the proceeds of those bonds of Alexina's which matured the other day? This morning I took a mortgage on a boat Cowan is building at his yard." Alexina heard her name, but did not understand. CHAPTER SEVEN There came a day the following spring when Alexina, seeking her aunt, wept. Harriet gazed at her dismayed, at a loss. Heretofore Alexina had taken her tears to Nelly or had kept them to herself. "They are going away," she said, "King William and them; going in the boat." This, as a matter to cry about, was a mystery to Harriet. "Going where?" she asked. "To get the golden fleece," her weeping niece assured her. "Well," said Harriet amused, "let us hope they may find it, but why the tears?" Alexina got up and carried her tears to her own room. It spoke her infantile capacity to discriminate that she bore away no resentment; there are things that the Aunt Harriets with the best wills in the world need not be expected to understand. King William's mother, telling her, had held her tight and rocked her; King William's father, when he saw her lip trembling afterward, had lifted her on his knee.