“No. It warn’t none of our business. Abraham ain’t interested in folks’ money—only in der souls. He’s a deacon in Rive’side Colored Church, you know!”
“Yes, I’ve heard him very highly spoken of, Mrs. Jones,” concluded Mary Louise, rising from her chair. “If you see Elsie, will you tell her to come to our house? Anybody can direct her where to find the Gays’ home, in Riverside.”
“I sure will, Miz Gay. Dat’s a perty name.... And you a perty gal!”
“Thanks,” stammered Mary Louise in embarrassment.... “And good-bye, Mrs. Jones.”
She stepped out of the shack and waved to the children as she passed them again on her way back to Dark Cedars. Glancing at her watch as she climbed the hill, she observed that it was only half-past three. What in the world would she do to pass the time until her father came for her at five o’clock?
It occurred to her as she approached Miss Grant’s house that she might try to interview Hannah concerning her whereabouts the preceding night, and she was thankful to catch sight of the woman in the back yard, talking to William, her husband. It was evident from both the old servants’ attitudes that they were having an argument, and Mary Louise approached slowly, not wishing to interrupt.
William Groben looked much older than his wife, although Hannah was by no means a young woman. Hadn’t she claimed that she had done the house-cleaning for forty years at Dark Cedars? Even if she had begun to work there in her teens, Mary Louise figured that she must be fast approaching sixty. But William looked well over seventy. He was thin and shriveled and bent; what little hair he had left was absolutely white. There could be no doubt about William’s innocence in the whole affair at Dark Cedars: a frail old man like that could not have managed to handle a healthy girl like Mary Louise in the manner in which the criminal had treated her.
“There ain’t no use sayin’ another word, Hannah,” Mary Louise heard William announce stubbornly. “I ain’t a-goin’ a-change me mind. Duty is duty, and I always say if a man can’t be faithful to his employer—”
“I’ve heard that before, never mind repeatin’ it!” snapped his wife. “And nobody can say I ain’t been faithful to Miss Mattie, fer all her crankiness. But we’ve got a little bit saved up, and we can manage to live on it, with my sister Jennie, without you workin’ here. In a place that’s haunted by spirits!”
The man looked up sharply.