At length he asked gently, “You didn’t want to see this here Gardner in jail?”
The woman cried passionately, “No! No! Oh, he was wrong to steal. If I had not seen him I would never have believed—But I didn’t want to put him in jail!”
“I guess you liked him pretty well,” Jeff said. His tone was sympathetic, not inquisitive.
“Yes,” she nodded sadly, as though she spoke of one who were dead. “Yes, I did.” With a sudden confidence she added, “Why, he was my best friend. We knew each other so well. It was through him I met Mr. Viles. And then Frank had to go to Europe on business for Mr. Viles, and he was away so long, and I did not hear from him. I used to work, you know. I was a buyer in one of the New York stores. And Mr. Viles was ever so good to me, and I was tired, and he begged me so. That was how I came to marry him.”
“I don’t figure you ever loved him very much,” Jeff suggested after an interval.
“He was good to me at first,” she protested. “I think he meant to be good to me.”
Silence fell upon them both once more, and this time it persisted. By and by Jeff rose from his chair, passed behind hers and touched her shoulder roughly with his heavy hand.
“I wouldn’t worry too much,” he said cheerfully. “I wouldn’t worry too much if I was you.”
She looked up at him and smiled through sudden tears. “You’re good to me,” she told him.
“You run along to bed,” Jeff bade her. “Just forget your bothers and run along to bed.”