"How nice! Perhaps I shall meet her. I should like to, really. Tell me, do you know her well?"
"Not very well. Yuh see, I ain't in town such a lot. Say, Kate, did Mis' Mace write an' tell yuh I was up here at the Bend?"
"Yes, I believe she did." Kate's tone was ingenuous. But the quick upward fling of her eyes was not.
"Did yuh tell yore father an' the boys?"
"Why, I don't remember, Tom. I might have. Very possibly I did. Why?"
"I was just a-wonderin'."
"You mean——" gasped Kate, her eyes widening with genuine horror.
At first, misinterpreting the trend of his questioning, she had believed him brazenly fishing. Now she understood the significance underlying his words. She wanted to scream. But half the street was watching them. Underlip caught between her teeth, she sucked in her breath. Piteously her eyes searched Loudon's face.
"Tom!" she breathed. "Tom! You do think I betrayed you after all. Oh, Tom, Tom!"
It was Loudon's turn to be distressed.