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IS as much out of place as an ox-driver as I should be in a cotton-field. He's a perfect mine of information, though, about a lot of things."

"Then why not take counsel of him, instead ome?"

"He would hardly be a disinterested adviser."

"Ah, I see!"

Mrs. McAlpin blushed. "He has not spoken to me one word of love, Captain, -r- if that is what you mean. I am not an eligible party," and the lady used her handkerchief to wipe away a tear. "I want your opinion about getting a divorce from a union that I detested long before I ever met Mr. Burns. It is unbearable

now."

"Hush, Daphne! Not another word," interposed her mother. "Strangers have no right to an insight into our family affairs."

"But I must speak to somebody. Stay, Captain!" laying her hand upon his arm as he was about to leave the carriage.

"Are you running away from your husband, madam?" he asked, resuming his seat.

"You guess correctly, sir."

"I suspected it all along; but it was none of my business in the beginning, nor is it now. But I confess that it looks as if I were making it my business to conduct a caravan of grass widows to Oregon, judging from the present aspect of affairs."

"To make a long story short,—for I see you are growing restless,—I was married in my callow childhood, married in obedience to my mother's wish. She was a widow and poor; my suitor was accomplished and rich. If he'd been a sensible man he would have courted and married my mother, who adores him. But old men are such idiots! They 're always hunting young women, or children, for wives."

"You're complimentary."