"No, I never saw him at Mrs. Owen's; but I did meet him once, in
Montgomery. He was a fine old gentleman. You would hardly imagine him
ever to have been a naval officer; he was quite the elderly, spectacled
professor in his bearing and manner."
"I suppose even a man bred to the sea loses the look of a sailor if he
lives inland long enough," Bassett observed.
"I think my brief interview with him rather indicated that he had been a
man of action--the old discipline of the ship may have been in that,"
remarked Harwood. Then, fearing that he might be laying himself open to
questions that he should have to avoid answering, he said: "Kelton wrote
a good deal on astronomical subjects, and his textbooks have been
popular. Sylvia Garrison, the granddaughter, is something of a wonder
herself."
"Bright girl, is she?"
"Quite so; and very nice to look at. I met her on the train when I went
to Boston with those bonds in January. She was going back to college
after the holidays. She's very interesting--quite different."
"Different?" repeated Bassett vaguely, dropping back in his chair, but
again referring absently to the letter.
"Yes," Dan smiled. "She has a lot of individuality. She's a serious
young person; very practical-minded, I should say. They tell me she
walks through mathematics like a young duchess through the minuet.
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