"I'll try," Mary said; and a fear crept over her mind. Was it Walter—Walter? She kept saying this to herself.
"Can you tell me where your brother was the afternoon of the day you came home?" says the policeman. He was very civil and kind all through. He couldn't have been more so, Mary said. There wasn't a rough word.
"No," Mary said; and her heart did sink, for she had suspected mischief of some sort all along.
"He wasn't here, eh?" says the policeman.
Mary never thought of such a thing as shuffling, or trying to put him off. She always was as open as the day. If I had but been the same! Mary would never say a word that wasn't true, to shelter anybody.
"No," she said, "he wasn't here! I thought he would be, and I was disappointed. He had gone off for the afternoon."
"Gone off where," says the policeman.
"I don't know where," says she.
"He didn't tell you."
"No," says she; "he only told me it was business."