"She did."
Lassie stared. "Alva!—you don't believe that! That woman's never hiding that girl from a millionaire. It isn't possible!"
"But she is, my dear. She's a true, good mother; she doesn't want her daughter to marry him, because he is so dissipated."
"But I should think that they would run away and get married. I'd marry a man, anyway, if I loved him."
"Ah, Lassie, you don't know what you'd do if you were in the position of that poor girl. Her mother has taken her away and is stopping here in this very quiet and unassuming way to avoid all notice or being found out."
"But he has found them out!"
"Yes, but Mrs. Lathbun doesn't know it."
Lassie looked almost incredulous. "Mrs. Lathbun doesn't look a bit like a woman who would hide her daughter away from a millionaire," she said, obstinately.
"You see how easy it is to misjudge any one, Lassie; because that's what she's doing."
"Mrs. O'Neil says they haven't any trunks or any clothes. She said so this afternoon."