The memory of all Annie Felton had said to him came back upon his heart, which softened more and more under the influence of that pure and gentle soul, as he walked back through the fields to Aunt Patsy’s house.
“I was dreadful ’fraid you wouldn’t come back,” said the old woman, welcoming him. “See! I’ve made up a sort of bed for you on the floor. You can sleep here every night as long as you have to dodge the constable.”
Jack, deeply affected by her kindness, regarded her with struggling emotions for some moments before he ventured to speak. Here was one of the outcasts of society, of whom it was impossible for many people to believe any good thing, who appeared to the world a hardened, embittered, hateful old hag, and nothing more; and yet how kind, how motherly even, she was to him in his trouble! Thus there are people all about us whom the world judges from having seen only one side of them, and that their worst side, while deep springs of human feeling lie hidden in their lives.
Jack murmured his thanks, and said, “I wanted to ask you more about that money. You said either Mr. Chatford or the goldsmith had made a mistake about it.”
“I’m sure on ’t,” replied Aunt Patsy. “So don’t worry over your loss. There’s no doubt but what that was Sam Williams’s trunk; and me and my husband knowed as well as we wanted to that Sam was a practised counterfeiter. Of course, the coin was bogus.”
Jack took a quick step across the room, and, returning, looked steadily at the fire.
“If I had only come and told you about it in the first place!” he said. Then after a moment’s thought, “Maybe I’ll come back and sleep on the bed you have made for me; I’ll be here again in half an hour, if I conclude to. Don’t wait for me longer than that. Good night, if I don’t come back.”
“Any time to-night, I’ll let you in!” were her last words as he left her door and disappeared in the darkness.
He walked fast down the road, passed Peternot’s house, turned the opposite corner, and kept on until he came to a farm-house standing on a gentle rise of ground near the street. He walked boldly up to the door and knocked. A large-eyed, round-faced, cheerful-looking woman appeared.
“Is the man of the house at home?” Jack inquired.