After a time the car door opened again, and a meek looking countryman entered carrying a lantern. "Jest as well wait inside," he remarked apologetically, setting down his lantern, and brushing the snow from his coat sleeves. "Got to meet my two gals, comin' up on the six-thirty car."
"Dear me, it must be getting very late," said Rosalie. "I am getting uneasy. If that young man went right to the club, the carriage ought to be here by this time. Do you know anything about that young man I sent?" she asked the conductor.
"No, miss. He got on just a piece down the road, and said he was going back to town. I don't know as I ever saw him before, but he looked respectable."
"You didn't give him no money, did you?" asked the big man listening interestedly to the conversation, and glad to have a new topic developed.
"Why, yes," said Rosalie hesitatingly. "I gave him twenty-five cents."
"You did? Well, you ain't likely to see him nor your money again. There's a good bit of sharpers ready to make what they can offen any one," said the big man with a chuckle, hitching himself further along. "I'll bet you don't see him again. What do you bet, Lyddy?" he said turning to his wife.
"Why, I don't know, Cyrus," she replied timidly.
"Oh, well, just bet to make it lively," he said. "We've got to do something to keep up our spirits. I say he didn't go and that he won't come back."
"Then I'll say he did," returned his wife with an air of having done a rather rash thing.
"What do you say?" asked the big man of the conductor.