ey all think he's an absconding
defaulter."

"It's shocking," said Wade, sadly, "but I'm afraid you're right. These
things are so common that people are subjected to suspicion on no kind
of--" But just at this juncture Matt lifted his head from the moment's
revery in which he seemed to have been far absent.

"Have you seen much of the family this winter?"

"Yes, a good deal," said Wade. "They're not communicants, but they've
been regular attendants at the services, and I've been a good deal at
their house. They seem rather lonely; they have very little to do with
the South Hatboro' people, and nothing at all with the villagers. I
don't know why they've spent the winter here. Of course one hears all
kinds of gossip. The gossips at South Hatboro' say that Miss Suzette was
willing to be on with young Wilmington again, and that _she_ kept the
family here. But I place no faith in such a conjecture."

"It has a rustic crudity," said Matt. "But if Jack Wilmington ever cared
anything for the girl, now's his chance to be a man and stand by her."

Something in Matt's tone made Wade stop and ask, "What do you mean,
Matt? Is there anything besides--"

"Yes." Matt took a fresh grip of his friend's arm, and walked him
steadily forward, and kept him walking in spite of his involuntary
tendency to come to a halt every few steps, and try to urge something
that he never quite got from his tongue, against the probability of what
Matt was saying. "I mean that these people are right in their
suspicions."

"Right?"

"My dear Caryl, there is no doubt whatever that Northwick is a defaulter
to the company in a very large amount. It came out at a meeting of the
directors on Monday. He confessed it, for he could not deny it in the
face of the proof against him, and he was given a number of days to make
up his shortage. He was released on parole: it was really the best
thing, the wisest as well as the mercifullest, and of course he broke
his word, and seized the first chance to run away. I knew all about the
defalcation from my father just after the meeting. There is simply no
question about it."

"Gracious powers!" said Wade, finally helpless to dispute the facts
which he still did not realize. "And you think it possible--do you
suppose--imagine--that it was really he who was in that burning car?
What an awful fate!"

"An awful fate?" asked Matt. "Do you think so? Yes, yours is the safe
ground in regard to a thing of that kind--the o