An Encore [See page 4 WHEN ALFRED PRICE FELL IN LOVE WITH MISS LETTY MORRIS An Encore BY MARGARET DELAND AUTHOR OF “THE AWAKENING OF HELENA RICHIE” “DR. LAVENDER’S PEOPLE” “OLD CHESTER TALES” ETC. ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY ALICE BARBER STEPHENS NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS MCMVII An Encore MARGARET DELAND ALICE BARBER STEPHENS HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1904, 1907, by Harper & Brothers. Harper & Brothers All rights reserved. Published October, 1907. Illustrations Illustrations [Page 1] An Encore [Page 1] An Encore ACCORDING to Old Chester, to be romantic was just one shade less reprehensible than to put on airs. Captain Alfred Price, in all his seventy years, had never been guilty of putting on airs, but certainly he had something to answer for in the way of romance. However, in the days when we children used to see him pounding up the street from the post-office, reading, as he walked, a newspaper held at arm’s-length in front of him, he was far enough from romance. He was seventy years old, he weighed over[Page 2] two hundred pounds, his big head was covered with a shock of grizzled red hair; his pleasures consisted in polishing his old sextant and