“No, I don’t know him, but I am sure I am right in saying that he is a man of loose morals,” said Madame.
“I don’t believe it,” said Olive.
“Why not? How can you know?”
“Because I have talked with him a great deal, and he speaks like a man with high aspirations, and not at all like the bad man you say he is.”
“But what can you know of a man’s real character from a chance word or two as you run across him in an afternoon’s stroll?” observed Madame.
“I don’t judge from a chance word, I have had long talks with him.”
“Indeed! and where? Do you meet him here at the spring then, so often?”
“I never met him at the spring before, but I used to meet him pretty often, when I was out cattle-hunting and he would generally accompany me for a bit. Sometimes too, he used to pass our house on his way cattle-hunting, and then he would look in and water his horse and stop to talk to me for a time,” said Olive in explanation.
“Really!” said Madame looking keenly at her companion, “and did Ezra know of these visits?”
“Ezra said he wasn’t to come any more, and I told Mr. Cotterell so to-day.”