, Ann."

"Master Raymond has been very kind to all of us, you know--has given us
pretty things, and has promised to send us all presents when he gets
back from England; and I have heard you and father both say, that the
Putnams always stand up for their friends."

This reference to the promised presents from England, evidently told all
around the circle. They had nothing to gain by "crying out" against
Master Raymond, they had something to gain by not doing it; besides, he
was a very handsome young man, who had tried to make himself agreeable
to almost all of them as he had opportunity. And though Dulcibel's
beauty went for nothing in their eyes, a young man's good looks and
gallant bearing were something entirely different.

And so Abigail Williams, and Mary Walcot, and Mercy Lewis, and Leah
Herrick, and Sarah Churchill, and Elizabeth Hubbard all had the same
tale to tell with suitable variations, as young Ann Putnam had. They
were certain that the face of the "spectre" was not the face of Master
Raymond; but of some person they had never before seen. Mercy Lewis and
Sarah Churchill, in fact, were inclined to think it was the face of
Satan himself; and they all wondered very much that Mistress Putnam
could have mistaken such an old and ugly face, for that of the comely
young Englishman.

As for Leah Herrick, she did not care in her secret heart if Master
Raymond were in love with Dulcibel--so that he would only take her out
of the country, where there was no danger of Jethro's seeing her any
more. All her belief that Dulcibel was a witch was based upon jealousy,
and now that it was utterly improbable that Jethro would ever turn his
thoughts in that direction again, she had no hard feeling towards her;
while, as she also had reason to expect a handsome present from England,
she did not share in the least Jethro's bitterness against the young
Englishman.

But although Mistress Putnam was thus utterly foiled in her effort to
enlist the "afflicted circle" in her support, she was not the woman to
give up her settled purpose on that account. She knew well that she was
a host in herself, so far as the magistrates were concerned. And, having
Jethro Sands to join her, it made up the two witnesses that were
absolutely necessary by the law of Massachusetts as of Moses. The
"afflicted circle" might not aid her, but it was not likely that they
would openly revolt, and take part against her in public; and so she
went the very