Rudolph hesitated.
“What I should like to do,” said he, “is to take you to my mother’s——”
Mabin almost screamed.
“You won’t do that,” she said quietly, with her lips very tightly closed.
“She would be very kind to you,” suggested Rudolph gently, pleadingly.
He knew the prospect was not an enticing one, but he was not so quick as the girl to see all its disadvantages.
“And don’t you see that it would set them all saying the most dreadful things about poor Mrs. Dale, if I were to leave her suddenly like that? I shouldn’t think of such a thing. It would be cruel as well as cowardly. She would never be able to stay in Stone after that.”
“I don’t think she will be able to stay in any case,” said Rudolph gloomily. “If she is persecuted by this spy on the one hand, and by the old woman on the other, it isn’t likely that she will be able to stay here long.”
A new idea flashed suddenly into Mabin’s mind and then quickly found expression:
“Do you suppose,” she asked, “that this man, this Mr. Banks, is paid by the old lady to spy upon Mrs. Dale? The old lady must be very rich, I think, and she is eccentric evidently.”