When the two stood speechless, she said, looking straight at Brian: “It seems to me, sir, that the young lady has all the best of the argument. But I really think she should have some dry clothes as well.”
She turned to the dripping and dishevelled Judy: “You poor child. Aren't you cold! It is rather early in the season for a dip in the river, I should think. Let me take whatever you have there, and you make for the house as fast as you can go,—the run will warm you.”
As she spoke, she went to the mountain girl, holding out her hand to take the manuscript, and smiling encouragingly.
But Judy backed away, her stealthy, oblique gaze fixed with watchful surprise on the fair stranger.
“This here ain't none of your put-in,” and her shrill drawling monotone contrasted strangely with the other's pleasing voice. “Where'd you-all happen from, anyhow? How'd you-all git here?”
“I came over the bluff by the path,” answered the other. “You see, I left the train from the south at White's Crossing because I knew I could drive up from there by the river road quicker than I could go by rail away around through the hills to Thompsonville, and then make the drive down the river from there. When I reached Elbow Rock, I was in such a hurry, I took the short cut, while the man with my trunk and things went by the road over Schoolhouse Hill, you know. I arrived here just as this gentleman was pulling you from the water.”
Before Brian could speak, Judy returned with excitement: “I know who you-all be now. I ought ter knowed the minute I set eyes on you. You-all are the gal with that there no-'count name, an' you've come ter work for him, there,”—she pointed to Brian,—“a-helpin' him ter write his book, what ain't his'n no more, nohow, 'cause he done throwed hit away,—plumb inter the river.”
“I am Miss Williams,” returned the other. “My 'no-'count name,' I suppose, is Betty Jo.” She laughed kindly. “Perhaps it won't seem so 'no'count' when we are better acquainted, Judy. Won't you run along to the house, and change to some dry clothes? You will catch your death of cold if you stand here like this.”
“How'd you-all know I was Judy?”
“Why, Auntie Sue wrote me about you, of course.”