"You don't think so?"
"Sh—sh!" said Carrie.
But Max persisted.
"You know as well as I do that that villainous old Mrs. Higgs is at the bottom of the affair."
Carrie bent over Dudley, to assure herself that, if not asleep, he was at least unconscious of what was passing. Then she turned to Max.
"You are wrong," said she then, quickly. "Mrs. Higgs was an agent only, in the hands of some one else. If I tell you what I believe, you will only laugh at me."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that she was a harmless, good-hearted, kind woman until—until Mr. Horne came to see her; that she was always good to me till then. And that, after that awful day when the man was killed—murdered by Mr. Horne—"
"It's not true! It can't be true!" burst out Max.
But Carrie went on, as if he had not spoken: