“Yes. You know who I mean.”
He would not speak the hated name. His wife spoke it for him.
“Bennie?” she asked. “Oh, he ain't been with me for 'most two year now. He—he went away. He's in New York now. And I was alone and I saw Miss Graham's advertisement for a housekeeper and answered it. I needed the money and—”
“Hold on! You needed the money? Why, you had money.”
“Abner left me a little, but it didn't last forever. And—”
“You had more'n a little. I wrote to bank folks there and turned over my account to you. And I sent 'em a power of attorney turnin' over some stocks—you know what they was—to you, too. I done that soon's I got to Boston. Didn't they tell you?”
“Yes, they told me.”
“Well, then, that ought to have helped along.”
“You don't s'pose I took it, do you?”
“Why—why not?”