Then she went back to Sarah. What my sister-in-law said set me to thinking queer thoughts. I admired the way she took the matter, though it made me pretty angry at the time. It seemed straight and courageous, like her. If we had married, down there at home in the years past, there would have been some pretty lively times between us. I could never have got her to look at things my way, and I don't see how I could have come to see things her way. For in spite of all the preacher and May had to say, my feeling was unchanged: women and clergy, they were both alike, made for some other kind of earth than this. I was made for just this earth, good and bad as it is,—and I must go my way to my end.
CHAPTER XX
TREACHERY
Who was the traitor?—Slocum's logic—We send for our accomplice—One look is enough—The poison of envy—I see the last of an old friend—Slocum points the moral—What people know—Public opinion—Cousin Farson again—We lunch at a depot restaurant—I touch granite
The Monday morning after Mr. Hardman's outbreak, Slocum was waiting for me at my office. In reply to my telegram he had come back from St. Louis, where he had been attending to some business in connection with Farson's railroad.
"They got it pretty straight this time," was all he said as a greeting, with a care-worn sort of smile.
"They can't prove it! We'll bring suit for libel. I must put myself straight—for family reasons."
But the lawyer shook his head doubtfully.
"That wouldn't be safe, Van! It's too close a guess. I rather think they've got all the proof they want."