d stop a bit there, a-gossiping. It'll be on
my mind by day and by night, that if I'd went with her, harm couldn't
have come."

"And that was how she left you," pursued Mr. Verner. "You did not see
her after that? You know nothing further of her movements?"

"Nothing further," assented Robin. "I watched her down the lane as far
as the turning, and that was the last."

"Did she go to Mrs. Duff's, I wonder?" asked Mr. Verner.

Oh, yes; several of those present could answer that. There was the
parcel brought up by Dan Duff, as testimony; and, if more had been
needed, Mrs. Duff herself had afforded it, for she made one of the crowd
outside.

"We must have Mrs. Duff in," said Mr. Verner.

Accordingly, Mrs. Duff was brought in--a voluble lady with red hair. Mr.
Verner politely asked her to be seated, but she replied that she'd
prefer to stand, if 'twas all the same. She was used to standing in her
shop, and she couldn't never sit for a minute together when she was
upset.

"Did Rachel Frost purchase things of you this evening, Mrs. Duff?"

"Well, she did, and she didn't," responded Mrs. Duff. "I never calls it
purchasing of things, sir, when a customer comes in and says, 'Just cut
me off so and so, and send it up.' They be sold, of course, if you look
at it in that light; but I'm best pleased when buyers examines the
goods, and chats a bit over their merits. Susan Peckaby, now, she--"

"What did Rachel Frost buy?" interrupted Mr. Verner, who knew what Mrs.
Duff's tongue was, when it was once set going.

"She looked in at the shop, sir, while I was a-serving little Green with
some bone buttons, that her mother had sent her for. 'I want some Irish
for aprons, Mrs. Duff,' says she. 'Cut off the proper quantity for a
couple, and send it me up some time to-morrow. I'd not give the
trouble,' says she, 'but I can't wait to take it now, for I'm in a hurry
to get home, and I shall be wanting the aprons.' 'What quality--pretty
good?' said I. 'Oh, you know,' says she; 'about the same that I bought
last time. And put in the tape for strings, and a reel of white cotton,
No. 30. And I don't mind if you put in a piece of that German ribbon,
middling width,' she went on. 'It's nicer than tape for nightcaps, and
them sort o' things.' And with that, sir, she was turning out again,
when her eyes was caught by some lavender prints, as was a-hanging just
in the doorway. Two shades of it, there was, dark and light. 'That's
pretty,' says