"I told Mr. Culver," said Rose, "that I'd already walked the length of Main Street and back, and that was enough for me."
"How did John Culver happen to say anything about that? How come it you were talking to him?"
"I'd asked him to hire me as a waitress," said Rose.
"And I reckon," said Miss Gibbons, "that he told you he kept a respectable hotel. He may have put some frills on it, but that's close enough to go on, isn't it?"
Rose nodded. In her relief at finding her situation so well understood, she was turning a little limp.
"Why did you come to me?" Miss Gibbons demanded. "He never would have thought of sending you here."
Rose braced up once more and told about her conversation with Judge Granger.
This time the milliner heard her through.
"And so the judge sent you to me," she said, when Rose had finished. "I suppose that was his fool idea of being funny. He thought it was a chance to get me poison mad."
Rose nodded a little wearily.