“It is not very likely,” said Nan coldly.  She wished that the captain would go on with his stories of the former grandeur of Dunport, rather than show any desire to talk about personal matters.  She had been little troubled at first by her aunt’s evident disapproval the evening before of her plans for the future, for she was so intent upon carrying them out and certain that no one had any right to interfere.  Still it would have been better to have been violently opposed than to have been treated like a child whose foolish whim would soon be forgotten when anything better offered itself.  Nan felt much older than most girls of her years, and as if her decisions were quite as much to be respected as her aunt’s.  She had dealt already with graver questions than most persons, and her responsibilities had by no means been light ones.  She felt sometimes as if she were separated by half a lifetime from the narrow limits of school life.  Yet there was an uncommon childlikeness about her which not only misled these new friends, but many others who had known her longer.  And when these listened to accounts of her devotion to her present studies and her marked proficiency, they shook their wise heads smilingly, as if they knew that the girl was innocent of certain proper and insurmountable obstacles farther on.

The air was fresh, and it was so pleasant on the wharf that the captain paced to and fro several times, while he pointed out different objects of interest along the harbor-side, and tapped the rusty anchor and the hawsers with his walking-stick as he went by.  He had made some very pointed statements to the keeper’s wife about the propriety of opening the hatches on such a morning as that, which she had received without comment, and wished her guests good-day with provoking equanimity.  The captain did not like to have his authority ignored, but mentioned placidly that he supposed every idler along shore had been giving advice; though he wondered what Nan’s grandfather and old Captain Peterbeck would have said if any one had told them this would be the only square-rigged vessel in Dunport harbor for weeks at a time.

“Dear me!” he exclaimed again presently, “there’s young Gerry hard at work!” and he directed his companion’s attention to one of the upper windows of the buildings whose fronts had two stories on the main street, while there were five or six on the rear, which faced the river.  Nan could see the diligent young man and thought it hard that any one must be drudging within doors that beautiful morning.

“He has always been a great favorite of your aunt’s,” said Captain Parish, confidentially, after the law student had pretended to suddenly catch sight of the saunterers, and waved a greeting which the captain exultantly returned.  “We have always thought that she was likely to make him her heir.  She was very fond of his father, you see, and some trouble came between them.  Nobody ever knew, because if anybody ever had wit enough to keep