“And I think it is a shame that Kolbeck and Roods should have made such an accusation against him,” cried Agnes.
“Hoity-toity!” exclaimed the seamstress. “You have gone off the handle just the same as usual, Aggie Kenway. The man certainly stole those goods.”
“Never!” murmured Ruth, almost in horror.
“Yes, he did. I know Mrs. Kolbeck. She told me all about it. Her own son—you know she’s Mr. Kolbeck’s second wife and her name was Stumpf before she married Kolbeck. Well, Israel Stumpf, Mrs. Kolbeck’s own son, told her there wasn’t a doubt but that Pendleton—perhaps with somebody to help him—stole those bolts of silk and satin and sold them down to New York.”
“Oh, I can’t believe it!” murmured Ruth.
“It’s a story, I don’t care what they say,” said Agnes hotly. Agnes could never be anything but partisan. She was always much in favor or much against everybody whom she knew.
“Well, Israel Stumpf works right there in the wholesale house, and he ought to know all about it,” declared Miss Titus, nodding emphatically.
“Why ought he to know, Miss Titus?” asked Dot, who proved on this occasion to be “a little pitcher with big ears.”
“Because he worked right there with Pendleton.”
“Would that make him know everything about it?” Dot pursued, with her usual insistence.