“If that is what brings you here, I am sorry you came. I met Mr. Locke quite by accident while out walking with the children. Jimmy Bryant cut his foot frightfully on a broken bottle, and Mr. Locke bound it up and brought him in to the doctor. I hardly know why I should make this explanation.”
“You could not be seen with the man without arousing more or less comment, and you should know what the gossips of this town will say.”
“Mr. Locke has satisfied me that he is a thorough gentleman, and unwarranted gossip of narrow-minded persons who are eager for something to talk about cannot frighten me.” The color was in her cheeks now.
“A gentleman!” cried Bent, losing his head for a moment. “That two-faced sneak a gentleman! That man who has boasted already that, as you happen to be the prettiest girl in town, he proposes to amuse himself with you! He thinks himself a crusher, the sort that girls get stuck on. He has the post-card photograph of one now, who signs herself ‘Tid,’ doubtless a silly creature he has flattered and fooled with his lying tongue. And now he proposes to get you on the string and—”
“Stop, Benton King!” Her cheeks had lost the flush, and there was something in her voice he had never heard before. “Whatever your motive, you are making a blunder. How do you know these things you are saying?”
CHAPTER XXXVI
CRUMBLED CASTLES
Fearing what she might think of him for dealing with a man like Hutchinson, he dared not tell her just how the knowledge had come to him; but he swore it was true, that he knew it was true, and begged her to believe him.
“And, though he has denied it, he is Paul Hazelton. They have the absolute proof, and Mike Riley holds a letter of his that will bar him from baseball in the Northern League. There’ll be a meeting called this very week, and he’ll be suspended.”
“I do not believe it, I told you not to speak to me again about him until you could show proof that—”