So it was agreed; and thus, primed to the fullest investigation, Aunt Sally and her curiosity established themselves within their victim’s sickroom. When they emerged from it, at daybreak, the one had been fully satisfied–with horror; and the ruddy face of the other had grown white and heartbroken as no single night of watching should have left it.
CHAPTER XI
THE GUEST DEPARTS
“Well, mother! What are you doing, waking me out of my beauty sleep, this way?”
“Don’t speak to me, John Benton. This is no time for fooling. Not till I’ve got my breath, knocked out of me by the plumb wickedness of this world. That I should have lived to hear such things and not died in my tracks!”
Upon leaving Mr. Hale’s sickroom, Aunt Sally had traveled as fast as her nimble feet could carry her to her son’s quarters, in the old mission, and had burst in upon his slumbers, with a mighty groan.
“What’s up?”
“You ought to be, for one thing. There, lie still. I can talk and you can listen–and you’ll need support ’fore I’m through. That man! Oh! that man!”
“Yes’m. Which one?”
“Shut up. You need spankin’ as bad as ever you did. But–John, John! The vilest wretch that ever trod shoe leather! The best, the generousest, the noblest–and not here to say a word for his poor self.”