Then she
will come here upon her last winter trip. I have arranged with the
captain to bring you to us if you can come."
After that the name of the schooner and its captain was given, a list
also of some of the things that he would need to bring with him. It was
stated that upon the island he would receive lodging and food, and that
there were a few women, not unskilled in nursing, who would carry out
his instructions with regard to the sick.
Caius folded the letter after the second reading, finished his work with
the horses, and walked with his lantern through the now darkening air to
the house. Just for a few seconds he stopped in the cold air, and looked
about him at the dark land and the starry sky.
"I have now neither the belief nor the enthusiasm she attributes to me,"
said Caius.
When he got into the bright room he blinked for a moment at the light by
which his father was reading.
The elder man took the letter in his hard, knotted hand, and read it
because he was desired to do so. When finished, he cast it upon the
table, returning to his newspaper.
"Hoots!" said he; "the woman's mad!" And then meditatively, after he had
finished his newspaper paragraph: "What dealings have you ever had with
her?"
"I never had any dealings with her."
"When you get a letter from a strange woman"--the father spoke with some
heat--"the best thing that you can do with it is to put it in the fire.
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