Mr. Penfold's first words after introducing Mabel had
reference to Ralph.
"Your boy has grown quite a man, Mary, in the last six months. I
scarcely recognized the bronzed young fellow who met vis at the coach
office as the lad who was down with me in the summer. Don't you see
the change, Mabel?"
"Yes, he is quite different," the girl said. "Why, the first time I
saw him he was as shy as shy could be. It was quite hard work getting
on with him. Now he seems quite a man."
"Nothing like that yet, Mabel," Ralph protested.
"Not a man!" Mr. Penfold exclaimed. "What! after wandering about as a
pirate, capturing ships, and cutting men's throats for anything I
know, and taking part in all sorts of atrocities? I think he's
entitled to think himself very much a man."
Ralph laughed.
"Not as bad as that, Mr. Penfold. They did take one ship, but I had
nothing to do with it; and there were no throats cut. I simply made a
voyage out and back as a boy before the mast; and, as far as I hare
been concerned, the ship might have been a peaceful trader instead of
a French privateer."
"Well, Mary, you have not changed much all these years," Mr. Penfold
said turning to Mrs. Conway, while the two young people began to talk
to each other. "I had thought you would be much more changed; but time
has treated you much more kindly than it has me.
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