“When I come callin' on you at your place in New York I will smoke yours. Now it kind of looks to me as if you'd ought to smoke mine. Seems reasonable when you think it over, don't it?” Fosdick smiled. “Perhaps you're right,” he said. He took one of the gaudily banded perfectos from his host's box and accepted a light from the match the captain held. Both men blew a cloud of smoke and through those clouds each looked at the other. The preliminaries were over, but neither seemed particularly anxious to begin the real conversation. It was the visitor who, at last, began it. “Captain Snow,” he said, “I presume your clerk told you I wished to see you on a matter of business.” “Who? Oh, Labe, you mean? Yes, he told me.” “I told him to tell you that. It may surprise you, however, to learn that the business I wished to see you about--that I came on from New York to see you about--has nothing whatever to do with the house I'm building down here.” Captain Zelotes removed his cigar from his lips and looked meditatively at its burning end. “No-o,” he said slowly, “that don't surprise me very much. I cal'lated 'twasn't about the house you wished to see me.” “Oh, I see! . . . Humph!” The Fosdick mild blue eye lost, for the moment, just a trifle of its mildness and became almost keen, as its owner flashed a glance at the big figure seated at the desk. “I see,” said Mr. Fosdick. “And have you--er--guessed what I did come to see you about?” “No-o. I wouldn't call it guessin', exactly.” “Wouldn't you? What would you call it?” “We-ll, I don't know but I'd risk callin' it knowin'. Yes, I think likely I would.” “Oh, I see. . . . Humph! Have you had a letter--on the subject?” “Ye-es.” “I see. From Mrs. Fosdick, of course. She said she was going to write--I'm not sure she didn't say she had written; but I had the impression it was to--well, to another member of your family, Captain Snow.” “No, 'twas to me. Come this mornin's mail.” “I see. My mistake. Well, I'm obliged to her in a way. If the news has been broken to you, I shan't have to break it and we can get down to brass tacks just so much sooner. The surprise being over--I take it, it WAS a surprise, Captain?” “You take it right. Just as much of a surprise to me as you.” “Of course. Well, the surprise being over for both of us, we can talk of the affair--calmly and coolly. What do you think about it, Captain?” “Oh, I don't know as I know exactly what to think. What do YOU think about it, Mr. Fosdick?” “I think--I imagine I think very much as you do.” “I shouldn't be surprised. And--er--what's your notion of what I think?” Captain Zelotes' gray eye twinkled as he asked the question, and the Fosdick blue eye twinkled in return. Both men laughed.