“Oh, no!” she said. “The others I shall have to keep to myself—except Dave Carney. I could consult you about him, but I think I had better not.”
“Do you mean in connection with the robbery?”
“Yes; and yet I don’t want to put it into words. I wish I could have a little talk with Dave myself.”
“Why don’t you?” said Madison. “It would be more efficacious than anything I could do. You might induce him to tell you something.”
Victoria was silent for a moment. Then she suddenly looked at her feet.
“I am positively sitting with my feet in the river!” said she. “This leaky old boat is no good at all, and my shoes are soaking wet. I shall have to go right in and change them.”
“I suppose I shall have to allow you to go under those circumstances,” said Roger, as he pushed out of the way and watched her unfasten her boat, in the doing of which she scorned his proffered assistance. “But I am glad we have had this explanation. You won’t run away from me any more, will you?”
“No,” said Victoria, smiling brightly at him and disappearing within the shelter of the old boathouse. “I won’t run away from you any more.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
MRS. WENTWORTH WARD CHANGES HER OPINION.
“Before I’d be afraid of a toad!”