"There's just one thing," said Mrs. Lewknor gravely. "It would help Mrs. Trupp and me very much, if you could give us some sort of idea where you were on September 14th, 1906—if you can throw your mind back all that great way."
"I was with him!" Ruth answered in a flash. She was fighting for her best-beloved: everything must be sacrificed to save her—even Royal. "It was the day!" she panted. "It were the first time ever I was in a car—that's one why I remember: Alf drove us."
"D'you happen to remember at all where you went?" tentatively.
"All wheres," Ruth answered. "Hailsham—Heathfield. I hardly rithely knaws the names. We'd tea at Lewes—I remembers that."
Mrs. Lewknor raised her keen eyes.
"You don't remember where you had tea?"
Ruth shook her head, slowly.
"I can't justly remember where. See Lewes is such a tarrabul great city these days—nigh as big as Beachbourne, I reck'n. It was over the Registrar's for births and deaths and such like—I remember that along o the plate at the door."
Mrs. Lewknor rose, her fine eyes sparkling.
"That's splendid, Ruth!" she said. "All I wanted."