XVIII
IN THE GRASS
I did some tall thinking that night. I remembered that this man had
held some conversation with the Jeffreys at their carriage door
previous to their departure from the Moore house, and found myself
compelled to believe that only a matter of importance to themselves
as well as to him would have detained them at such a minute. Oh,
that Tampa were not so far off or that I had happened on this clue
earlier! But Tampa was at that moment a far prospect for me and I
could only reason from such facts as I had been able to collect in
Washington.
Fixing my mind now on Mrs. Jeffrey, I asked the cause of the many
caprices which had marked her conduct on her wedding morning. Why
had she persisted in dressing alone, and what occasioned the
absorption which led to her ignoring all appeals at her door at a
time when a woman is supposed to be more than usually gracious? But
one answer suggested itself. Her heart was not in her marriage, and
that last hour of her maidenhood had been an hour of anguish and
struggle. Perhaps she not only failed to love Francis Jeffrey, but
loved some other man. This seemed improbable, but things as strange
as this have happened in our complex society and no reckoning can be
made with a woman's fancy.
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