An Encore
An Encore
BY
AUTHOR OF
“THE AWAKENING OF HELENA RICHIE”
“DR. LAVENDER’S PEOPLE”
“OLD CHESTER TALES”
ETC. ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
ALICE BARBER STEPHENS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
MCMVII
Copyright, 1904, 1907, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
Published October, 1907.
Illustrations
| “WHEN ALFRED PRICE FELL IN LOVE WITH MISS LETTY MORRIS” | Frontispiece |
| “THE CAPTAIN AND CYRUS WERE AFRAID OF GUSSIE” | Facing p 18 |
| “THERE WAS A LITTLE SILENCE, AND THEN DR. LAVENDER BEGAN” | ” 76 |
[Page 1]An Encore
ACCORDING to Old Chester, to be romantic was just one shade lessreprehensible than to put on airs. Captain Alfred Price, in all hisseventy years, had never been guilty of putting on airs, but certainlyhe had something to answer for in the way of romance.
However, in the days when we children used to see him pounding up thestreet from the post-office, reading, as he walked, a newspaper held atarm’s-length in front of him, he was far enough from romance. He wasseventy years old, he weighed over[Page 2] two hundred pounds, his big head wascovered with a shock of grizzled red hair; his pleasures consisted inpolishing his old sextant and playing on a small mouth-harmonicon. As tohis vices, it was no secret that he kept a fat black bottle in thechimney-closet in his own room, and occasional