But for her interview with the detective Mrs. Avery would have believed this story. As it was, she did not choose to dispute it. She only sought to draw out her visitor so as to understand better her object in calling.
"Are you willing to explain why it was that you were led to place your nephew under my care?"
"Certainly. There is no secret about that now. My brother, who was a blacksmith, failed, and was unable to support the boy."
"What was your brother's name?"
"Jedediah Gilman. That is why I desired to have the boy called Jed Gilman, after his father. My name is Jane Gilman."
"Then you are not married?"
"No," said Miss Gilman. "Not but I might have been married half a dozen times if I had wanted to. But the men are a shiftless lot, in my opinion."
"Not all of them. I never charged my husband with being shiftless."
"Oh, well, there are exceptions. But I liked my freedom, so I am Jane Gilman still. I may change my mind yet, and get married. There's a many after me, and I am only thirty-two."
Mrs. Avery was too polite to question her statement, but privately decided that the other was ten years older.