“He is innocent,” declared the girl, “and you may name your own price if you will help me to get him out of prison.”
The young lawyer could not but admire the girl. She could give him but meagre knowledge of Tom’s trouble, but names were added, so that he could get his own evidence.
“And I do not want you to ever write me. I am suspicious of my cousin and those pretending to be my friends, and as long as they think that I am doing nothing for Tom I am safe, but I fear the consequences otherwise.”
The lawyer promised and soon the eagle-eyed coachman, who was being paid by Benson to keep his eye upon his young mistress, saw the girl emerge from Wanamaker’s, and wave her finger at him from the distance. She had been gone just two hours.
“Home,” was all she said.
“Biddy,” whispered Nellie, after she and the woman were in bed, “you told me to look up a lawyer, and I did it to-day. I did not buy any of those things I said I did.”
“No?” inquired the woman.
“Indeed not, I simply went into a store and out the back door, and let the carriage wait for me in front. Why, do you know I fear even the eyes of Brown. When he drives me anywhere, he always looks as if he were memorizing the number of the place. But how contentedly he waited until I came out of the store, and he was nearly asleep upon the box.”
Biddy shook the bed with hearty laughter.
“You’ve got the brain,” said she softly, and then they fell asleep.