"Yes—of Sam. Don't tell me an untruth. You need tell me nothing, you know, unless you like. I don't come to ask as having any authority, only as a friend of his, and of yours."
She paused a moment before she replied. "Sam hasn't done any harm to nobody," she said.
"I don't say he has. I only want to know where he is. You can understand, Carry, that it would be best that he should be at home."
She paused again, and then she blurted out her answer. "He went out o' that back door, Mr. Fenwick, when you came in at t'other." The Vicar immediately went to the back door, but Sam, of course, was not to be seen.
"Why should he be hiding if he has done no harm?" said the Vicar.
"He thought it was one of them police. They do be coming here a'most every day, till one's heart faints at seeing 'em. I'd go away if I'd e'er a place to go to."
"Have you no place at home, Carry?"
"No, sir; no place."
This was so true that he couldn't tell himself why he had asked the question. She certainly had no place at home till her father's heart should be changed towards her.
"Carry," said he, speaking very slowly, "they tell me that you are married. Is that true?"