Page:Ballinger Price--Fortune of the Indies.djvu/52

 "This can't go on, you know," Mrs. Titcomb said, coming to the point at once, as was her way. "You'd better tell me what's the matter with you, and then I'll know what to do with you."

So Jane, who feared Mrs. Titcomb not at all and respected her on account of her good sense in once marrying a sea-captain, told the whole tale.

"How nice it would be," reflected the old lady, polishing her spectacles, "if ever you'd recite a lesson that way! Now sit down, and let's talk."

Jane sat down, and they did talk. And it appeared that although Mrs. Titcomb was only four years old when the Fortune of the Indies and the first Mark Ingram sank in the China Sea, she remembered very well indeed the stir in Resthaven. The soft rustle of crinoline in her mother's shaded parlor as a quiet little knot of ladies talked over the tidings; the Ingram Wharf with its sober group of sea-faring men, and the Gloria lying there with her company flag at half-mast. She had docked only that morning with her tragic news to give Resthaven.