"I give it as my opinion," retorted the lightkeeper, pursing his lips, "that it won’t add none to your burdens, Amos. I don’t see no weddin’ invitations in the offing for you to distribute." "She’s jest a-flirtin’, is she?" "Like a sandpiper," declared Tobias. "Keepin’ her hand in as ye might say. There ain’t a mite o’ harm in Lorny, but she’s got to have some amusement." He was nevertheless glad to see Ralph arrive. The lightkeeper believed that Lorna would much better have her old friend at hand to compare Degger with. Had he been present at the first meeting of the trio, Tobias Bassett might have experienced some doubt of the value after all of such comparison. Lorna greeted Ralph very coolly. She and Degger were about to launch the lightkeeper’s dory for a fishing trip when Ralph came striding down from the Clay Head. "’Lo, Ralph," was the girl’s careless hail. "Did you put the bait-pail in, Mr. Degger?" "All right, Miss Lorna. It’s right here. How do, Endicott?" "I heard you were here, Degger," said Ralph, merely nodding to Lorna. "What’s running now?" "Mostly squeteague and fluke," replied the girl. "Occasionally a tautog on rocky bottom. No snappers yet." "Nothing worthy of Your Majesty’s prowess," gibed Degger. "I understand you are a real fisherman," and he pushed off the boat. Ralph’s gaze narrowed and his brow clouded. He sat down on the sand. There was room enough in the dory for a third; but neither of them had suggested his joining them. Perhaps Ralph’s attitude was not exactly that of a dog in the manger. But it did trouble him to see his erstwhile chum so friendly with Conny Degger. Not that he knew of anything actually bad about the fellow. Merely, he had seemed so inconsequential and, at times, rather vulgar. Ralph was quite aware that some men are one thing to their masculine friends while they act entirely differently in the company of women. Degger, he thought, was of that kind. He hated to see Lorna "mixing up," as he termed it, with the fellow. He was not wise enough—wise in women’s ways—to hide this feeling from Lorna’s sharp vision. She flattered herself that her old friend was displaying jealousy. This supposition could not fail to please her. Ralph had become such a nuisance in her opinion, that she was determined to show him that she could easily attract other men. She would flout him and his whole family—as well as her own—by playing about with Conny Degger. "Ralph thinks that he is the only man who ever pays me any attention," Lorna secretly ruminated. "And goodness knows, he has hung around so close that almost everybody else has been driven off. Conceited! That is just what Ralph Endicott is. Always looking over a tall collar at the rest of the world. If he didn’t believe that Adam’s last name was Endicott he never would admit relationship with the first of the race! Humph!"