Mrs. McElwin glanced at her daughter, as if she had heard a footstep on dangerous ground. She was not far wrong.
"Sawyer is a man, ready—"
"He has not shown it," the girl was bold enough to declare. She stood under the lamp and the newspaper rattled as she held it now grasped tightly.
"Eva," said her mother, in gentle reproof, "don't say that."
"But I want her to say it if she thinks it," the banker spoke up, almost angrily. "I want her to say it and prove it."
"He proved it to me, but I may not be able to prove it to you. Mr. Lyman called him a coward and he did not resent it."
"Lyman did? How do you know?"
"I heard him."
The banker blinked at her. "You heard him? When? And how came you to be near him?"
"It was on the Sunday after the mar—the foolish ceremony. As Mr. Sawyer walked off with me from the church door Mr. Lyman joined us."