With eyes down the two girls sat silent. Then the further word came absently, "I refused to touch his money," and there was another stillness.
"Dear," slowly said Anna, "I don't believe it was his. It would not have been in gold. Some men of the battery were here last evening--You know the Abolition schoolmistress who was sent North that day?"
"Yes, I know, 'twas hers."
"Well, dear, if she could entrust it to him--"
"Ah! she had a sort of right, being, as the whole battery knows, in love with him"--the beauty swept a finger across her perfect brows--"up to there! For that I don't know is he to blame. If a girl has no more sense--"
"No," murmured Anna as the cruel shaft went through her. "What did Charlie do with the money?"
Flora tossed a despairing hand: "Gave it to grandma! And poor innocent grandma lent it to the old gentleman! 'Twas to do wonders for the powder and gun, and be return' in three days. But the next--"
"I see," sighed Anna, "I see!"
"Yes, next day 'twas Sunday, and whiles I was kneeling in the church the powder, the gun, the old man and the money--Oh, Anna, what shall I do?"
"My dear, I will tell you," began Anna, but the seeker of advice was not quite ready for it.