know. There was something about the way he was walking made
me think so. I suppose he doesn't know what way to turn."

"Well, I don't pity him," said Mrs. Van Dorn, with subdued
vindictiveness. "I don't see what a man is thinking of to come into a
place and conduct himself as he has done. They say he is in debt
everywhere, and has cheated everybody who didn't know any better than
to be cheated."

Mrs. Van Dorn spoke with point. She had heard on very good authority
that Mrs. Lee's husband had lost heavily through his misplaced
confidence in Carroll. Mr. Lee knew that she knew, but she stood up
bravely for the maligned man hurrying towards the Port Willis
trolley-car.

"Well, I don't know," said she. "You can't always tell by what people
say. It always seems to me that Banbridge folks are pretty ready to
talk, anyway. We don't know how much temptation the poor man has had,
and maybe he never meant to cheat anybody."

"Never meant!" repeated Mrs. Van Dorn, sarcastically. "Why, that is
the way he has been doing right along everywhere he has lived. Why, I
had it straight from a lady I met who had visited in Hillfield, New
York, where they used to live before they came here. Never meant!"

"Maybe he didn't," persisted Mrs. Lee. She was a grateful soul, and,
even if capable of small and petty acts, was of fine grain enough to
bear no rancor towards the discoverer of them; but the other woman
was built on a different plan.

"I don't take any stock in him at all," she said, with a species of
delight. She looked out of the small, rear window of the coach as she
spoke. "He's going to Port Willis," she said. "He's getting in the
trolley-car."

Samson Rawdy also turned his head and saw with a strained side glance
Carroll getting into the Port Willis trolley-car. Then he said:
"G'lang!" to his horses, and they turned a corner with a fine sweep,
while the ladies began getting their cards ready.

"I wonder what he's going to Port Willis for," said Mrs. Van Dorn,
reflectively and malignantly. "I suppose he's looking out for
somebody to cheat over there."

"Well, I pity him, poor man!" said Mrs. Lee. "If a man does cheat
other folks, he can't do it without cheating himself worst of all,
and it always turns out so in the end."

As is often the way with a simple tongue, hers spoke more wisdom that
it wot of. It was indeed quite true that poor Arthur Carroll, seating
himself in the Port Willis trolley-car, had in the bitter end