"Did Mr. Hardy seem to be pleased with his niece's selection—with Mr.
Fairfax?" he inquired. "Or don't you know?"
"Why, he never even seen the man," replied Mrs. Wilson. "It seems Mr. Fairfax was mixin' up business with his honeymoon, and him and his bride was goin' off again, or was on their way, and she had a chance to run up and see her uncle for an hour, and none of us so much as got a look at Mr. Fairfax."
The mystery darkened rather than otherwise. There was nothing yet to establish whether or not a real Mr. Fairfax existed. It appeared to Garrison that Dorothy had purposely arranged the scheme of her alleged marriage and honeymoon in such a way that her uncle should not meet her husband.
He tried another query:
"Did Mr. Hardy say that he had never seen Mr. Fairfax?"
"Never laid eyes on the man in his life, but expected to meet him in a month."
Garrison thought of the nephew who had come to claim the body. His name had been given as Durgin. At the most, he could be no more than Dorothy's cousin, and not the one he had recently met at her house.
"I don't suppose you saw Mr. Durgin, the nephew of Mr. Hardy?" he inquired. "The man who claimed the body?"
"No, sir. I heard about Mr. Durgin, but I didn't see him."
Garrison once more changed the topic.