"All small places like Warehold and Barnegat need topics of conversation, and Miss Jane for the moment is furnishing one of them.

They utilize you, dear mother, and me, and everybody else in the same way.

But that is no reason why we should lend our ears or our tongues to spread and encourage it." "I quite agree with you, my son, and I told the person who told me how foolish and silly it was, but they will talk, no matter what you say to them." "What do they say ?" asked the doctor, laying down his book and rising from his chair.
"Oh, all sorts of things.

One rumor is that Captain Holt's son, Barton, the one that quarrelled with his father and who went to sea, could tell something of the child, if he could be found." The doctor laughed.

"He can be found," he answered.