expressed that no woman of Jane Cobden's
position would go to any such lengths to oblige so young a fellow as
Bart Holt, the details of their intimacy were passed from mouth to
mouth, and when this was again scouted, reference was made to Miss
Gossaway, who was supposed to know more than she was willing to tell.
The dressmaker denied all responsibility for the story, but admitted
that she had once seen them on the beach "settin' as close together as
they could git, with the red cloak she had made for Miss Jane wound
about 'em.

"'Twarn't none o' my business, and I told Martha so, and 'tain't none
o' my business now, but I'd rather die than tell a lie or scandalize
anybody, and so if ye ask me if I saw 'em I'll have to tell ye I did. I
don't believe, howsomever, that Miss Jane went away to oblige that
good-for-nothin' or that she's ever laid eyes on him since. Lucy is
what took her. She's one o' them flyaways. I see that when she was
home, and there warn't no peace up to the Cobdens' house till they'd
taken her somewheres where she could git all the runnin' round she
wanted. As for the baby, there ain't nobody knows where Miss Jane
picked that up, but there ain't no doubt but what she loves it same's
if it was her own child. She's named it Archie, after her grandfather,
anyhow. That's what Martha and she calls it. So they're not ashamed of
it."

When the fire had spent itself, only one spot remained unscorched: this
was the parentage of little Archie. That mystery still remained
unsolved. Those of her own class who knew Jane intimately admired her
kindness of heart and respected her silence; those who did not soon
forgot the boy's existence.

The tavern loungers, however, some of whom only knew the Cobden girls
by reputation, had theories of their own; theories which were
communicated to other loungers around other tavern stoves, most of whom
would not have known either of the ladies on the street. The fact that
both women belonged to a social stratum far above them gave additional
license to their tongues; they could never be called in question by
anybody who overheard, and were therefore safe to discuss the situation
at their will. Condensed into illogical shape, the story was that Jane
had met a foreigner who had deserted her, leaving her to care for the
child alone; that Lucy had refused to come back to Warehold, had taken
what money was coming to her, and, like a sensible woman, had stayed
away. That there was