“Confide in me, my dear Nina,” she spoke with a world of sympathy in voice and manner. “I know that I can aid you.”
CHAPTER XIX
SUSPICION
It was not often that Charles Craige was late in keeping an appointment with Mrs. Parsons. But the pretty widow had occasion to glance repeatedly at her parlor clock with ever increasing annoyance before she heard the butler ushering some one upstairs. She masked her displeasure under a smiling face.
“Ah, Charles, what has detained you?” she asked, as he bent low over her hand and kissed it.
“Pressing business,” he answered. “I am deeply sorry to be late, Cecelia. Judge McMasters simply would not hurry. Has Ben Potter been here?”
“Not to-day.” Mrs. Parsons’ surprise at the question was manifest. “You know he is not one of my favorites. He bored me to death in San Francisco; he is so intense—” she shrugged her shoulders. “I saw his wife this morning.”
“Indeed?” Craige selected a cigarette from the box on the table and accepted a lighted match.