I murmured astonishment, though in truth something of a cyclonic atmosphere still hovered about Mrs. Kobbe, not only in her method of performance on the organ, but in her sparkling features, young and beautiful, her wide-flowing curled hair. "How old does she seem to you to be, sir?" "She looks to me," I said, with honesty, "to be eighteen or twenty--twenty-five at the most." "Sir, she is forty!" said Captain Judah proudly. Angie Fay shot him a bewitching glance through the open door. "She is not only a skilled performer on the keys, as you see, but she is a wide-idead thinker. If it would not detain you, sir, against previous inclination to the ball-room, I should like to read you some of her poetry." Glances too oppressed by awe to contain envy were cast upon me by my former companions from afar; even the man who had been in California was retreating in baffled dismay. "This first," said Captain Judah, drawing a roll from his pocket, "though brief, has been called by many wide-idead thinkers a 'rounded globe of pathos:' men, strong men, have wept over it. It has had a yard built around it; in other words, it has been framed, and hung in many a bereaved household; let me read: "'Farewell, my husband dear, farewell! Adieu! farewell to you. And you, my children dear, adieu! Farewell! farewell to thee! Adieu! farewell! adieu!' "Were you looking for your handkerchief, sir?" "Yes," said I, accidentally swallowing whole a nervine lozenge which Captain Leezur had given me. "This," said Captain Judah, with an expressive smile, as he opened another roll, "if you will excuse the egotism, refers to an experience of my own. I was once, when master of a whaler, nearly killed in a conflict with a whale; in fact, I am accustomed to speak of it paradoxically--or shall I say hyperbolically--as 'The time when I was killed!' My account of it made a great impression upon Angie; but I will read: "'Upon the deep and foaming brine, My Judah's blood was spilled. The anguished tears gush from my eyes. O Judah, wast thou killed? "'Had I beheld that awful scene, I should have turned me pale, My eyes were mercifully hence, When Judah killed the whale.' "It was I, so to speak, that was killed," said Captain Judah, with his peculiar smile; "the whale escaped. But for the sake of symphony, Angie has used that poetic license, familiar, as you know, to wide-idead thinkers. Or let me read you this----" Dimmer and dimmer grew the faces of my former jovial company; but I had one friend, stout, even for this emergency. I heard a voice coming-- [Illustration: Music fragment: "'Or as the morn-ing flow'r, The blight--'] Judah! Judah! Judah! drop 'er, I say, an' come along!" Captain Pharo winked. "On some other occasion, sir," said Captain Judah, returning the roll to his pocket with cheerful haste, "I shall be happy."