“Do you think he went alone?” With a savage leap the question got beyond the bounds of her lips.
“I doubt it. Just what part the other will play, I don’t know. But of one thing I’m certain, Josiah is bent on ill.”
Elizabeth felt that her old friend was being 277 weighed in the balances. She could not trust her words to the emotion she felt.
“Do you think you are in a position to understand what I’m trying to tell you?”
“Father,” she said, speaking slowly that she might not lose control of herself, “if you were not so serious about this, I should be tempted to laugh at your little melodramatic farce. It is the most ridiculous thing in all the world for you to imagine that Uncle Josiah would play double with us! He is too good-hearted for even one evil suggestion to get into his mind.”
“I did not want to tell you the fact, but I fear I must. Of late he has been openly hostile to every suggestion I have made. I presume he thinks I should have secured a boat for him. That may account for his action.”
“What dreadful thing has he done? I can’t imagine–––”
“Crookedness comes from the most unexpected sources,” cut in her father, curtly.
“But such a thing would not be unexpected from Uncle Josiah, it would be impossible.”