is the matter?" exclaimed Mr. Verner.

The woman burst into tears.

"Oh, sir, I don't know nothing of it; I protest I don't," she uttered.
"I declare that I never set eyes on Rachel Frost this blessed night."

"But you were near the spot at the time?"

"Oh, bad luck to me, I was!" she answered, wringing her hands. "But I
know no more how she got into the water nor a child unborn."

"Where's the necessity for being put out about it, my good woman?" spoke
up Mr. Bitterworth. "If you know nothing, you can't tell it. But you
must state what you do know--why you were there, what startled you, and
such like. Perhaps--if she were to have a chair?" he suggested to Mr.
Verner in a whisper. "She looks too shaky to stand."

"Ay," acquiesced Mr. Verner. "Somebody bring forward a chair. Sit down,
Mrs. Roy."

Mrs. Roy obeyed. One of those harmless, well-meaning, timid women, who
seem not to possess ten ideas of their own, and are content to submit to
others, she had often been seen in a shaky state from very trifling
causes. But she had never been seen like this. The perspiration was
pouring off her pinched face, and her blue check apron was incessantly
raised to wipe it.

"What errand had you near the Willow Pond this evening?" asked Mr.
Verner.

"I didn't see anything," she gasped, "I don't know anything. As true as
I sit here, sir, I never saw Rachel Frost this blessed evening."

"I am not asking you about Rachel Frost. _Were_ you near the spot?"

"Yes. But--"

"Then you can say what errand you had there; what business took you to
it," continued Mr. Verner.

"It was no harm took me, sir. I went to get a dish o' tea with Martha
Broom. Many's the time she have asked me since Christmas; and my
husband, he was out with the Dawsons and all that bother; and Luke, he's
gone, and there was nothing to keep me at home. I changed my gownd and I
went."

"What time was that?"

"'Twas the middle o' the afternoon, sir. The clock had gone three."

"Did you stay tea there?"

"In course, sir, I did. Broom, he was out, and she was at home by
herself a-rinsing out some things. But she soon put 'em away, and we sat
down and had our teas together. We was a-talking about--"

"Never mind that," said Mr. Verner. "It was in coming home, I conclude,
that you were met by young Broom."

Mrs. Roy raised her apron again, and passed it over her face but not a
word spoke she in answer.

"What time did you leave Broom's cottage to return