"It was, indeed," agreed the detective. "Your son thought much of the girl?"
"Of Victoria Vane?"
"Yes."
"Law, no. Didn't I tell you that August was keepin' company with the
Alstine girl?"
"Yes; but young men sometimes have more strings than one, you know."
"But August ain't that kind."
"Artless, old mother!" thought Keene. "She knows nothing of the doings of this son of her's." Then, thinking of the forger whom he had come so near capturing that evening, Keene said: "You are from New York, I believe, Mrs. Bordine?"
"Formerly, yes."
"From the neighborhood of Rochester?"
"Yes."