Mrs. Backus, all smiles, asked her husband a question. "What did you say her name was, dear?" she asked.
The minister hesitated. "Why—why—" he stammered, "it was—— Dear me, how forgetful I am!"
Sears supplied the information.
"Berry," he said, gloomily. "Cordelia Berry."
Mr. Backus seemed surprised. "Why, no," he declared. "That doesn't sound like the name.... It wasn't. No, it wasn't. It was—I have it—Snowden. Miss Elvira Snowden—of Ostable, I believe."
CHAPTER XIX
Not until Captain Kendrick entered the Minot kitchen late that afternoon did he get the full and complete answer to his puzzle. Judah supplied the missing details, supplied them with a rush, had evidently been bursting with them for hours.
"My hoppin', creepin', jumpin' prophets, Cap'n Sears," he roared, before his lodger could speak a word, "if I ain't got the dumdest news to tell you now, then nobody ever had none!... You ain't heard it, Cap'n, have you? Don't tell me you've heard it already! Have you?"