Do you, Alice ?" "No," said Mrs.Stobell, dutifully, "but I want to share your dangers, Robert." "Say 'yes' or 'no' without any trimmings," commanded her husband, as he intercepted a look passing between her and Mrs.Chalk.
"Do-you-want-to-come ?" Mrs.Stobell trembled.

"I don't want to prevent Mr.Chalk from going," she murmured.
"Never mind about him," said Mr.Stobell.
"_Do--you--want--to--come_.
"Yes," said Mrs.Stobell.
Her husband, hardly able to believe his ears, gazed at her in bewilderment.

"Very well, then," he said, in a voice that made the tea-cups rattle.

"COME!" He sat with bent brows gazing at the table as Mrs.Chalk, her face wreathed in triumphant smiles, began to discuss yachting costumes and other necessities of ocean travel with the quivering Mrs.Stobell.
Unable to endure it any longer he rose and, in a voice by no means alluring, invited Mr.Chalk into the garden to smoke a pipe; Mr.Chalk, helping himself to two pieces of cake as evidence, said that he had not yet finished his tea.

Owing partly to lack of appetite and partly to the face which Mr.Stobell pressed to the window every other minute to entice him out, he made but slow progress.
The matter was discussed next day as they journeyed down to Biddlecombe with Mr.Tredgold to complete the purchase of the schooner, the views of the latter gentleman coinciding so exactly with those of Mr.Stobell that Mr.Chalk was compelled to listen to the same lecture twice.
Under this infliction his spirits began to droop, nor did they revive until, from the ferry-boat, his eyes fell upon the masts of the _Fair Emily,_ and the trim figure of Captain Brisket standing at the foot of the steps awaiting their arrival.
"We've had a stroke of good luck, gentlemen," said Brisket, in a husky whisper, as they followed him up the steps.