tly, but with no air of self-consciousness.

Sweetwater watched her for a moment, and then remarked: "I'm going to
take one thing for granted; that you are as anxious as we are to clear
Miss Challoner's memory."

"O yes, O yes."

"More than that, that you are ready and eager to help us. Your very
looks show that."

"You are right; I would do anything to help you. But what can a girl
like me do? Nothing; nothing. I know too little. Mr. Challoner must see
that when you tell him I'm only the daughter of a foreman."

"And a friend of Mr. Brotherson," supplemented Sweetwater.

"Yes," she smiled, "he would want me to say so. But that's his goodness.
I don't deserve the honour."

"His friend and therefore his confidante," Sweetwater continued. "He has
talked to you about Miss Challoner?"

"He had to. There was nobody else to whom he could talk; and then, I had
seen her and could understand."

"Where did you see her?"

"In New York. I was there once with father, who took me to see her.
I think she had asked Mr. Brotherson to send his little friend to her
hotel if ever we came to New York."

"That was some time ago?"

"We were there in June."

"And you have corresponded ever since with Miss Challoner?"

"She has been good enough to write, and I have ventured at times to
answer her."

The suspicion which might have come to some men found no harbour in
Sweetwater's mind. This young girl was beautiful, there was no denying
that, beautiful in a somewhat startling and quite unusual way; but
there was nothing in her bearing, nothing in Miss Challoner's letters to
indicate that she had been a cause for jealousy in the New York lady's
mind. He, therefore, ignored this possibility, pursuing his inquiry
along the direct lines he had already laid out for himself. Smiling
a little, but in a very earnest fashion, he pointed to the letter she
still held and quietly said:

"Remember that I'm not speaking for myself, Miss Scott, when I seem a
little too persistent and inquiring. You have corresponded with Miss
Challoner; you have been told the fact of her secret engagement to Mr.
Brotherson and you have been witness to his conduct and manner for the
whole time he has been separated from her. Do you, when you think of
it carefully, recall anything in the whole story of this romance which
would throw light upon the cruel tragedy which has so unexpectedly ended
it? Anything, Miss Scott? Straws show which way the stream flows."