"I'd hate a prying neighbor," remarked Linda.
"You're not liable to have one from present indications. If I had time I'd really like to look into some of the old titles, and see just how the property in the vicinity of Talbot's Angles has come down to the present owners. I know about a good many, as it is. Your brother sold off Talbot's Addition, didn't he?"
"Yes. You know my father had mortgaged it up to the hilt, and then Mart sold it in order to get rid of the interest and to have something to put into the home place. He thought he would rather hold one unencumbered place and have some money to improve it than to struggle along with two places."
"Good judgment, too. If I am not mistaken there was still more property belonging to the Talbot family originally. Wasn't Timber Neck theirs at one time?"
"I believe so, though it was so long ago that I don't remember hearing much about it."
"I see. Well, here we are, and I think there must be crab cakes from the odor."
"So there are; I remember now. I knew Miss Ri was fond of them and no one can make them as well as Phebe."
The supper set forth on the big round table displayed the crab cakes, brown and toothsome, the inevitable beaten biscuits on one side, and what Phebe called "a pone of bread" on the other. There were, too, some thin slices of cold ham, fried potatoes and a salad, while the side table held some delectable cakes, and a creamy dessert in the preparation of which Phebe was famous. No one had ever been able to get her exact recipe, for "A little pinch" of this, "a sprinkling" of that, and "what I thinks is right" of the other was too indefinite for most housekeepers. Many had, indeed, ventured after hearing the ingredients but all had failed.
"This is a supper fit for a king," said Berkley, sitting down after a satisfied survey of the table.
"You might have just such every day," returned Miss Ri.
"Please to tell me how. Do you mean I could induce Phebe to accept the place of head cook at the hotel?"
"You are so blind, just like most conceited young men who might have homes of their own if they chose."
"Please, Miss Ri, don't be severe. You haven't the right idea at all. Don't you know it is my lack of conceit which prevents my harboring the belief that I could induce anyone to help me to make a home?"