"Sit down, please," she said. "I know you are tired from your work."
He obeyed willingly enough, but it seemed to her that there was a certain undefinable restraint about him. They sat silent for several minutes. She was watching his face attentively. At any other time she might have been amused. Did he not realize that his failure to inquire about Tobe Keith was an indirect confession of the part he had played the night before?
"Well, they took Tobe to Atlanta to-day," she suddenly announced, still eying him closely.
"Oh, did they?" he exclaimed.
She said nothing for another moment. "I suppose you think that Albert furnished the money?" she continued. She smiled now at his look of confusion, and as he made no reply she went on: "Well, he didn't. When I got to Mrs. Keith's this morning I learned that some one else had given her the necessary money. No one knows from whom it came."
"That's strange," Charles said, feebly.
"Yes, it was very strange. It seems that the man who brought it was an absolute stranger. He turned it over to Mrs. Keith, but refused to say who sent it. The whole town is talking about it."
"Very strange indeed," Charles said, still awkwardly. "I hope the poor fellow will stand his journey well."
"Yes, sending money like that was very strange," Mary persisted. "Most persons do their charity differently. They blow a horn, sound a trumpet, or get it into the papers; but this is genuine charity. However, it will leak out. You can't keep things like that hidden long."
"What do the doctors think—do they think that his chances are good for recovery?"