An Encore

In the quiet town of Old Chester, the locals have long whispered about Captain Alfred Price—an elderly, rotund gentleman known for his pipe smoke, a battered sextant, and a tiny harmonica that drifts from his window. By day he shuffles past the post office, newspaper in hand, and by night he clings to his bottle of rum and a habit of blasphemous oaths that only his daughter‑in‑law tolerates. Yet beneath that gruff exterior lies a story the town’s children have always wondered about: the hint of a romance that never quite took off.

When Alfred was a slender youth, his life took a bright turn with the arrival of Miss Letty Morris, a vivacious eighteen‑year‑old whose carriage ride through blooming orchards sparked a flirtatious exchange that felt like a scene from a novel. Their courtship, set against the backdrop of the Seminary for Youths and the genteel Female Academy, is filled with polite banter, secret glances, and the thrill of a possible elopement. Listeners will be drawn into the charm of early‑19th‑century manners and the tender, if precarious, hopes of two young hearts daring to defy expectations.