Mary-'Gusta by Joseph C. Lincoln

Captain Shad did ask more questions, of course. He asked no more that evening -- he judged it wisest not to do so; but the next day, seizing an opportunity when he and his niece were alone, he endeavored to learn a little more concerning her reasons for dismissing Crawford. The Captain liked young Smith, he had believed Mary liked him very much, and, although he could not help feeling a guilty sense of relief because the danger that he and Zoeth might have to share her affections with someone else was, for the time at least, out of the way, he was puzzled and troubled by the abruptness of the dismissal. There was something, he felt sure, which he did not understand.

"Of course, Mary-'Gusta," he said, "I ain't askin' anything -- that is, I don't mean to put my oar in about what you told me last night, but -- well, you see, Zoeth and me was beginnin' to feel that 'twas pretty nigh a settled thing between you and that young man."