"He wouldn't tell you?"
"I asked him—and I asked him to take me along with him. I'd 'a' gone gladly, and folks could 'a' thought what they liked. But he wouldn't tell, and he wouldn't have me, and I hain't heard a word from him from that day to this.... But I've thought and figgered and figgered and thought—and I jest can't see no reason at all."
"Took it to run away with—fer expenses," said Scattergood.
"There wasn't anything to run away from until after he took it. I know. Whatever 'twas, it come on him suddin. The night before we was together—and—and he didn't have nothin' on his mind but plans for him and me ... and he was that happy, Mr. Baines!... I wisht I could make out what turned a good man into a thief—all in a minute, as you might say. It's suthin', Mr. Baines, suthin' out of the ordinary, and always I got a feelin' like I got a right to know."
"Yes," said Scattergood, "seems as though you had a right to know."
"Folks is passin' it about that he's comin' home. Is there any truth into it?"
"I calc'late it's jest talk," said Scattergood. "Nobody knows where he is."
"He'll come sometime," she said.
"And you calc'late to keep on waitin' fer him to come?"
"Until I'm dead—and after that, if it's allowed."