“Come, child! you are not very ingenious in making up a story to bother Mr. Dewness.”
Mr. Dewness, however, did not laugh, or seem at all relieved.
“Did you leave her sitting there?” he asked.
“I leave her? No, sir; I went about my business, and she went into the store after you.”
“Did you see her go into the store?”
“No. But when I came quite near she was gone. Where else could she go?”
“May,” said David, earnestly, “there was no person there! No young woman nor anybody else came into the store. I left the wheel standing not over ten minutes, and then came out and rode it home. Come, now, you are mistaken; let us go for a spin in the park.”
“No, sir! You accuse me of telling a—a fib. I won’t have anything to do with a man who doesn’t believe my word! I know what I saw with my own eyes. While you have a girl come to visit you at the store, after business hours, you needn’t come to see me, Mr. Dewness!”
“Come, come, May, you are too hasty,” interrupted Mrs. Bentley. “You haven’t heard what Mr. Dewness has to say,” looking at the young man inquiringly.
“Mr. Dewness has nothing to say—just look at him, mother!”