“Yes?� Mrs. McCleary’s voice slid upward interrogatively. “Oi waant ter know.�
“Do you know the extent of Professor Russell’s power over your daughter?�
“Why, to be shure, Mr. Cramer. Who should know, if not her mother?�
“And do you approve of his compelling her to walk in the fields at night? Believe me, Mrs. McCleary, I ask this from no idle motive. I am interested in your daughter’s welfare and good name.�
“He compel her? Professor Russell compel her? Why, ye’re crazy, Mark Cramer!� The woman’s Irish temper was rising.
“But it is true she has gotten up in the night and wandered away, alone, is it not?�
“It is thrue Esther has walked in her shlape once or twice.�
“But is he not the cause, when she goes to meet him?�
“Mr. Cramer, what d’ye mean, insinuating such things of my Esther?�
“Mrs. McCleary, this is a painful revelation I must make you. But I know that this has occurred, at least once, and I know that Esther was constrained to go to this meeting by other power than her volition.�