CHAPTER XVII
Orn Skinner was to be taken to prison the Monday after the famous sermon preached by Dominie Graves. Professor Young had gained permission for Tessibel to spend fifteen minutes with Skinner before his departure. There was something about the fishermaid that touched his heart. Her ignorance, her devotion to her father, and the loveliness of the anxious young face haunted the professor during his working hours, and at night, when he could not sleep, he created plans for her future and her father's release. He persuaded himself continually that Tessibel was not the motive for clearing the fisherman of the murder charge, it was the love of justice—justice to the squatter and his lovely child. Often the lawyer had set his jaw when he thought of Minister Graves and the evident malice shown by the parson against the fisherman.
That Monday afternoon he met Tessibel as she came into the jail-yard, much the same Tessibel he had seen in the court-room.
Professor Young took the girl's hand in his and led her into the small waiting room of the stone prison. He desired to be alone with her for a few minutes that he might satisfy himself as to her history, which since her dramatic entrance into the court-room had been so distorted.
"You have no mother, I understand, my dear," he began.
"Nope," and Tessibel shifted one boot along the seam in the red carpet.
"Do you remember her?"
"Nope; don't remember none but Daddy."
"Have you ever been to school?"