“Why not tell us now?”
“Wait, mamma, dear. I am following the narrative as the facts came to my knowledge. The miniature was photographed and distributed to aid in the identification and arrest of the suspected party. It did not lead to Montgomery’s arrest, but to that of an unlucky gentleman who bore some resemblance to the photograph, especially in the matter of the martial mustache. This hapless person was brought before me for identification. The likeness struck even me at first, and startled me into a compromising exclamation; but a second glance assured me that I had never seen the man before in my life; and I told them so. They did not believe me. And afterward it took the evidence of several substantial citizens to convince the magistrate before whom he was brought that the accused man was quite a distinct individual from Capt. Kightly Montgomery, my supposed assailant. I say my supposed assailant, dear mamma; for they could not know him for such, since I would not give him up to justice; for I wish him no harm, though I never want to see him in this world.”
“Never!” breathed Hetty with all a mother’s intense sympathy.
“I told you in my letter of the great goodness of those angel women in New York to me, and how, as soon as I was able to leave the hospital, one of them, dear Mrs. Duncan, took me home to her own house, where she cared for me and my baby as—as you do, sweet mamma.”
“God bless them!” exclaimed Hetty.
“I stayed with her while the ladies were preparing my outfit, and until I took passage on the Scorpio.”
“And you saw no more of that——”
The conscientious minister hesitated at a word that any other man, under the circumstances, would have pronounced with vim.
Jennie understood him, and answered promptly.
“No, dear papa. I saw no more of him until I was eight days out at sea. Then we came face to face on deck.”