t have fancied him
had he been a better man. But he was far from being of the sort my
mother approved, and when he urged his suit too far, I grew frightened
and finally ran away. It was not so much that I could not trust him,"
she bravely added after a moment of silent confusion, "but that I could
not trust myself. He had an unfortunate influence over me, which I
hated while I half yielded to it."

"You ran away. When was this?"

"Yesterday afternoon at about six. He had vowed that he would see me
again before the evening was over, and I took that way to prevent a
meeting. There was no other so simple,--or such was my thought at the
time. I did not dream that sorrows awaited me in this quiet tavern, and
perplexities so much greater than any which could have followed a
meeting with him that I feel my reason fail when I contemplate them."

"Go on," urged the coroner, after a moment of uneasy silence. "Let us
hear what happened after you left your home in Chester."

"I went straight to the nearest telegraph office, and sent a message to
my mother. I told her I was coming home, and for her to meet me on the
road near this tavern. Then I went to Hudson's and had supper, for I had
not eaten before leaving my employer's. The sun had set when I finally
started, and I walked fast so as to reach Three Forks before dark. If my
mother had got the telegram at once, which I calculated on her doing, as
she lived next door to the telegraph office in Danton, she would be very
near this place on my arrival here. So I began to look for her as soon
as I entered the woods. But I did not see her. I came as far as the
tavern door, and still I did not see her. But farther on, just where the
road turns to cross the railroad-track, I spied her coming, and ran to
meet her. She was glad to see me, but asked a good many questions which
I had some difficulty in answering. She saw this, and held me to the
matter till I had satisfied her. When this was done it was late and
cold, and we decided to come to the tavern for the night. _And we came!_
Nothing shall ever make me deny so positive a fact. _We came_, and this
man received us."

With her final repetition of this assertion, she rose and now stood
upright, with her finger pointing straight at Quimby. Had he cringed or
let his eyes waver from hers by so much as a hair's breadth, her
accusation would have stood and her cause been won. But not a flicker
disturbed the steady patience of his look,