第44章

"Captain Warren," asked Caroline, as they were seated at the breakfast table next morning, "what are your plans for to-day?"Captain Elisha put down his coffee cup and pulled his beard reflectively. Contrary to his usual desire since he came to the apartment to live, he was in no hurry to finish the meal. This breakfast and the dinner of the previous evening had been really pleasant. He had enjoyed them. His niece had not called him uncle again, it is true, and perhaps that was too much to be expected as yet, but she was cheerful and even familiar. They talked as they ate, and he had not been made to feel that he was the death's head at the feast. The change was marked and very welcome. The bright winter sunshine streaming through the window indicated that the conditions outside were also just what they should be.

"Well," he replied, with a smile, "I don't know, Caroline, as I've made any definite plans. Let's see, to-day's Sunday, ain't it?

Last letter I got from Abbie she sailed into me because, as she said, I seemed to have been 'most everywheres except to meetin'.

She figgers New York's a heathen place, anyhow, and she cal'lates I'm gettin' to be a backslider like the rest. I didn't know but Imight go to church."

Caroline nodded. "I wondered if you wouldn't like to go," she said. "I am going, and I thought perhaps you would go with me."Her uncle had again raised his cup to his lips. Now he set it down with a suddenness which caused the statuesque Edwards to bend forward in anticipation of a smash. The captain started to speak, thought better of it, and stared at his niece so intently that she colored and dropped her eyes.

"I know," she faltered, "that I haven't asked you before, but--but--" then, with the impulsiveness which was one of her characteristics, and to her guardian her great charm, she looked him full in the face and added, "but I hoped you would understand that--that _I_ understood a little better. I should like to have your company very much."Captain Elisha drew a long breath.

"Thank you, Caroline," he answered. "I appreciate your askin' me, I sartinly do. And I'd rather go with you than anybody else on earth. But I was cal'latin' to hunt up some little round-the-corner chapel, or Bethel, where I'd feel a little bit at home. Iguess likely your church is a pretty big one, ain't it?""We attend Saint Denis. It IS a large church, but we have always been connected with it. Stephen and I were christened there. But, of course, if you had rather go somewhere else--""No, no! I hadn't anywhere in particular to go. I'm a Congregationalist to home, but Abbie says I've spread my creed so wide that it ain't more'n an inch deep anywhere, and she shouldn't think 'twould keep me afloat. I tell her I'd rather navigate a broad and shallow channel, where everybody stands by to keep his neighbor off the shoals, than I would a narrow and crooked one with self-righteousness off both beams and perdition underneath.

"You see," he added, reflectively, "the way I look at it, it's a pretty uncertain cruise at the best. Course there's all sorts of charts, and every fleet is sartin it's got the only right one. But I don't know. We're afloat--that much we are sure of--but the port we left and the harbor we're bound for, they're always out of sight in the fog astern and ahead. I know lots of folks who claim to see the harbor, and see it plain; but they don't exactly agree as to what they see. As for me, I've come to the conclusion that we must steer as straight a course as we can, and when we meet a craft in distress, why, do our best to help her. The rest of it I guess we must leave to the Owner, to the One that launched us. I . . . Good land!" he exclaimed, coming out of his meditation with a start, "I'm preachin' a sermon ahead of time. And the Commodore's goin'

to sleep over it, I do believe."

The butler, who had been staring vacantly out of the window during the captain's soliloquy, straightened at the sound of his nickname, and asked hastily, "Yes, sir? What will you have, sir?" Captain Elisha laughed in huge enjoyment, and his niece joined him.

"Well," she said, "will you go with me?"

"I'd like to fust-rate--if you won't be too much ashamed of me.""Then it's settled, isn't it? The service begins at a quarter to eleven. We will leave here at half-past ten."The captain shaved with extra care that morning, donned spotless linen, including a "stand-up" collar--which he detested--brushed his frock-coat and his hair with great particularity, and gave Edwards his shoes to clean. He would have shined them himself, as he always did at home, but on a former occasion when he asked for the "blackin' kit," the butler's shocked and pained expression led to questions and consequent enlightenment.

He was ready by a quarter after ten, but when his niece knocked at his door she bore a message which surprised and troubled him.

"Mrs. Dunn called," she said, "to ask me to go to church with her.

I told her I had invited you to accompany me. Would you mind if she joined us?"Her guardian hesitated. "I guess," he answered, slowly, "it ain't so much a question of my mindin' her as she mindin' me. Does SHEwant me to go along?"

"She said she should be delighted."

"I want to know! Now, Caroline, don't you think I'd be sort of in the way? Don't you believe she'd manage to live down her disappointment if I didn't tag on? You mustn't feel that you've got to be bothered with me because you suggested my goin', you know.""If I had considered it a bother I should not have invited you. If you don't wish Mrs. Dunn's company, then you and I will go alone.""Oh, land sakes! I wouldn't have you do that for the world! All right, I'll be out in a jiffy."He gave his hair a final brush, straightened his tie, turned around once more before the mirror, and walked fearfully forth to meet the visitor. For him, the anticipated pleasure of the forenoon had been replaced by uneasy foreboding.