"Why, yonder comes Clement and his clerk from the direction of the Widow Wild's house! Good-morning, Mr. Clement. Have you seen Mr. Pate?"
"I saw him ride up the avenue leading to Mrs. Wild's house, and dismount," said Clement.
"I saw him pull the bell at the front door," said the clerk.
"Was the door opened to him?" asked the Professor.
"It was opened by the widow herself, who, with a smiling countenance and an extended hand, seemed to bid him welcome," said the clerk.
"That is strange!" said the Professor.
"Not so strange as it may seem," said the clerk; "for, though Pate is sometimes bad-mannered among men, he will purr as softly as a pussy cat as soon as he comes in proximity to a petticoat. It is just as likely as not that the widow has taken a fancy to him."
"Women are enigmas," said Toney.
"The Widow Wild certainly is," said the Professor. "She would puzzle the brain of an Œdipus."
The deadly hostility of the widow to M. T. Pate was well known to the people of Mapleton, and a crowd collected around Clement; and, in a prolonged discussion, endeavored to solve what now appeared to be a mystery.