For this reason she asked Lancaster if he were fond of rowing; and when he said he was, she invited him to join them in a boat party the next day to help her and Olive pull the big family boat.  Mr. Fox did not like rowing, and Mr. Locker did not know how.

On the drive home Captain Asher and Lancaster did not talk much.  Even the young man’s invitation to the rowing party did not excite much interest in the captain.  These two men were both thinking of the same girl; one pleasantly, and the other very unpleasantly.  Dick was charmed with her, although he had had very little opportunity of becoming acquainted with her, but he hoped for better luck the next day.

The captain did not know what to make of her.  He felt sure that she was at fault, and that he was at fault, and he could not see how things could be made straight between them.  Only one thing seemed plain to him, and this was that, with things as they were at present, she was not likely to come back to his house; and this would not be necessary; he knew very well that there were other places she could visit; and that early in the fall her father would be home.

Dick Lancaster walked to Broadstone the next morning because Captain Asher was obliged to go to Glenford on business, but the young man did not in the least mind a six-mile walk on a fine morning.

All the way to Glenford the captain thought of Olive; sometimes he wished she had never come to him.  Even now, with Lancaster to talk to, he missed her grievously, and if she should not come back, the case would be a great deal worse than if she had never come at all.  But one thing was certain:  If she returned as the young lady with whom he had lunched at Broadstone, he did not want her.  He felt that he had been in the wrong, that she had been in the wrong; and it seemed as if things in this world were gradually going wrong.  He was not in a good humor.

When he stopped his mare in front of a store, Maria Port stepped up to him and said:  “How do you do, captain?  What have you done with your young man?”

The captain got down from his buggy, hitched his mare to a post, and then shook hands with Miss Port.

“Dick Lancaster has gone boating to-day with the Broadstone people,” he said.

“What!” exclaimed Miss Port.  “Gone there again already?  Why it was only yesterday you took dinner with them.”

“Lunch,” corrected the captain.

“Well, you may call it what you please,” said Maria, “but I call it dinner.  And them two’s together without you, that you tried so hard to keep apart!”

“I did not try anything of the kind,” said the captain a little sharply; “it just happened so.”

“Happened so!” exclaimed Miss Port.  “Well, I must say, Captain Asher, that you’ve a regular genius for makin’ things happen.  The minute she goes, he conies.  I wish I could make things happen that way.”

The captain took no notice of this remark, and moved toward the door of the store.