I've a bag of
taters for Mrs. Deo."
But the cart didn't budge and the lawyer had time to say:
"Guess you didn't hear anything said about another lady I am interested
in. No talk down your way of a strange young woman seen anywhere on the
highway or about any of the houses between here and the Landing?"
"Jerusha! I did hear a neighbor of mine say somethin' about a stranger
gal he saw this very mornin'. Met her down by Beardsley's. She was goin'
through the mud on foot as lively as you please. Asked him the way to the
Ferry. He noticed her because she was pretty and spoke in such a nice
way--just like a city gal," he said. "Is it any one from this hotel?"
added the fellow with a wondering look. "If so, she walked a mile before
daylight in mud up to her ankles. A girl of powerful grit that! with a
mighty good reason for catching the train."
"Oh! there's an early train then?" asked the lawyer, ignoring the other's
question with unmoved good-humor. "One, I mean, before the 10:50
express?"
"Yes, sir, or so I've heard. I never took it. Folks don't from here,
except they're in an awful hurry. Will y'er say who the young woman is?
Not--not--"
"We don't know who she is," quietly objected the lawyer. "And you don't
know who she is either," he severely added, holding the yawping
countryman with his eye.
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