“And what? Don’t keep any thing from me, child; this is a terribly serious matter. If that man is some one employed by Ethel’s father, then the child is in grave danger, and my responsibility will become immense;” and Mrs. Abbott rose and walked up and down the room with an appearance of great perplexity and agitation.
Marion was greatly troubled. “Dear, dear Mrs. Abbott,” she whispered, “if I tell you something will you forgive me if I ask you never to tell the girls? and don’t, O, don’t ask me to mention any names.”
“I do not like to give such a promise,” said Mrs. Abbott, gravely; “if you know any thing I ought to know, then it is your duty to tell me and leave me to decide what course to take.”
Marion left her side and went slowly back to her seat. It seemed to her like a very mean thing to tell of other girls’ transgressions, and yet love for Elfie made her feel it necessary Mrs. Abbott should know all about the strange man, and even about the peddler’s visit; that, too, was undoubtedly an attempt to discover if Elfie was living there. What would Edna say and do if she told any thing about her? At that thought, forgetting she was not alone, she exclaimed aloud, “O, I cannot, cannot tell!”
At her words Mrs. Abbott stopped in her walk, and, seeing the real suffering in her face, said tenderly, “Poor Marion, you do not want to trust me, but I will trust you. Tell me what you think I ought to know, as far as it concerns this matter, and I promise you that no one shall ever know how I acquired the information. I would not ask you to do violence to your sense of honor, for I respect your feeling; but for Elfie’s sake I must hear.”
“And for Elfie’s sake I will tell you,” said Marion; “but don’t blame me if I do not give any girl’s name. This man, or one very much like him, got in the front gate with a peddler’s pack one day and asked some of the girls questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“He asked if there was any little girl in mourning in the house?”
“That might not have meant any thing,” said Mrs. Abbott, “if it stood alone. What else is there to tell?”
“The same man that looked over the back fence to-day met some of the girls not long ago and talked with them.”