'We see through a glass darkly'!"
"Not meanin' to set my betters right, Minister," said Captain January,
"I never seed as it made any difference whether a man seed or not,
darkly or howsumdever, so long as the Lord made _His_ views clear.
And He's makin' 'em!" he added. "He's makin' 'em, Minister! Amen!
so be it!" And quietly and courteously, ten minutes later, he was
bidding his visitors welcome to Light Island, as if it were a kingdom,
and he the crownless monarch of it. "It's a poor place, Lady!" he
said, with a certain stately humility, as he helped Mrs. Morton out
of the boat. "Good anchorage for a shipwrecked mariner like me, but
no place for ladies or--or them as belongs to ladies."
"O Captain January!" cried Mrs. Morton, who was a tall, fair woman,
with eyes like Star's own. "What shall I say to you? I must seem to
you so cruel, so heartless, to come and ask for the child whom you
have loved and cared for so long. For that is what I have come for!
I must speak frankly, now that I see your kind, honest face. I have
come to take my sister's child, for it is my duty to do so." She laid
both hands on the old man's arm, and looked up in his face with
pleading, tearful eyes.
But Captain January's face did not move as he answered, quietly, "It
is your duty, Lady.
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