But not having even seen her enter
the house I can not testify in any way in regard to her. Home,
Caesar, and drive quickly. I do not thrive under these evening damps."
And leaning back, with an inexpressible air of contentment with
himself, his equipage and the prospect of an indefinite enjoyment of
the same, the last representative of the great Moore family was
quietly driven away.
XVII
A FRESH START
I was far from being good company that night. I knew this without
being told. My mind was too busy. I was too full of regrets and
plans, seasonings and counter reasonings. In my eyes Miss Tuttle
had suddenly become innocent, consequently a victim. But a victim
to what? To some exaggerated sense of duty? Possibly; but to what
duty? That was the question, to answer which offhand I would, in
my present excitement, have been ready to sacrifice a month's pay.
For I was moved, not only by the admiration and sympathy which all
men must feel for a beautiful woman caught in such a deadly snare
of circumstantial evidence, but by the conviction that Durbin, whose
present sleek complacency was more offensive to me than the sneering
superiority of a week ago, believed her to be a guilty woman, and as
such his rightful prey. This alone would have influenced me to take
the opposite view; for we never ran along together, and in a case
where any division of opinion was possible, always found ourselves,
consciously or unconsciously, on different sides.
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