"Wal, now," said Tobias, "ye look some het up. I seen ye soaking yourself out there on the sand in the sun, and I cal’lated you’d look like a b’iled lobster when you come up. And you do." Ralph knew that it was an angry flush Tobias saw on his face. He grinned ruefully. "More than the sun to make a fellow’s blood boil, Mr. Bassett, sometimes." "Oh, sugar!" rejoined the lightkeeper. "Ye don’t let that feller bother ye none, do you, Ralph?" "I do not like him much," the young man said stiffly. "You mean you don’t like him to be fooling around Lorny, hey?" said Tobias, his head shrewdly on one side. "It is none of _my_ business——" "Course it is! Course it is!" exclaimed the lightkeeper vigorously. "I’ve just about sized this Degger feller up, I cal’late. His folks ain’t any too well off, and I bet he’ll never get round-shouldered carrying his money around." "What has that to do with it, Mr. Bassett?" demanded Ralph, rather startled. "Why, Lorny can’t afford to waste her time with a feller like him," the lightkeeper declared coolly. "She’s got to marry somebody with money. I know by the way Miss Ida was talkin’ the other day over here, she was worried about Lorny marrying." "What _do_ you mean, Tobias Bassett?" ejaculated Ralph, dropping down on the bench beside him. "Why, I cal’late you know more about the Nicholets’ affairs than I do." "I don’t understand you at all," said the young man. "Do you mean to say——" "That Lorny’s got to marry money—yep!" exclaimed Tobias, pursing his lips and nodding. "It ’ud ease matters a whole lot for Miss Ida and Lorny’s father if she gets a rich husband. Why, Ralph! I s’posed you knowed _that_." "I never dreamed it!" "Cal’late that is why they were so anxious for you and her to make a match of it," pursued the lightkeeper. "O’ course, she don’t know nothing about it. But I give it as my opinion that a rich husband for Lorny is going to take a great burden off the shoulders of her family." "You amaze me." Ralph’s face was a study. "So ye see," said Tobias, with a cheerfulness that grated on Ralph’s nerves, "this Degger feller, unless he’s got more money than he’s showed any sign of having, ain’t got no chance with Lorna. Leastways," he added, "not with her folks." "I—I never thought of it before," said Ralph reflectively, "but I do not think Degger has much money." "Then he’d better be shooed away from the vicinity, as ye might say," the matchmaker said vigorously. "For if you air bound not to marry her yourself, Ralph, no use her fallin’ into the lap of a poor man." "You know very well Lorna wouldn’t marry me, Tobias Bassett!" exclaimed Ralph angrily. "You needn’t talk as though _I_ were at fault." "Oh, sugar! I don’t see you fallin’ over your own feet none, young man, to _make_ her marry ye."