Seth's new-found courage and manhood had vanished at the thought.

Bennie D.'s name had scarcely been mentioned during the various interviews between the lightkeeper and his wife.

She had said her first husband's brother had been in New York for two years, and her manner of saying it led Seth to imagine a permanent separation following some sort of disagreement.

And now! and now! He remembered Bennie D.'s superior airs, his polite sneers, his way of turning every trick to his advantage and of perverting and misrepresenting his, Seth's, most innocent speech and action into crimes of the first magnitude.

He remembered the meaning of those last few months in the Cape Ann homestead.