"Not better than a brother, eh, cousin Josey?" asked the country girl, with a funny glance out of the corners of her eyes.
"Oh, no," said Joe, laughing. "Not better than a brother, or I should scarcely be trying to make matters right between him and Mary Crawford."
"No, I suppose you would not—I didn't think of that," said Susy. "And so you know them, and you know him, and he is a good man, is he? Why, cousin Josey, where did all these stories come from, then?"
"Humph!" said the city girl, "we may find all that out by-and-bye. It is enough to say that they are not true, and that I know them not to be true. If I find that I am right in my suspicions of their origin, I will tell you: if not, you will be the better for not knowing."
"And what are you going to do?" asked the proprietor of the unmanageable curls and the wondering eyes.
"I scarcely know yet, myself," said the schemer. "It seems certain that no time is to be lost. You say that old Mr. Crawford may die any day. Now, Susy, it is my belief that if he should die to-day, as matters are arranged Mary and all the property would go—well, I cannot tell you where, but where you would not like to see them."
"Indeed you frighten me, cousin!" said Susy.
"I suppose so," answered Josephine. "But now—see here! I think I ought to see Mary Crawford this very day, and without any one at the big house knowing that I am at West Falls or that she has any communication with this house. How can that be managed?"
"Indeed I do not see how it can be managed at all!" said the country girl, with a very hopeless look at her pleasant face.
"Indeed it must!" said Miss Josey, who was only confirmed in the determination by the supposed difficulty.