lopin by an I looked out an saw a boy get off an take a
letter to the door an ride away, an pretty soon all in a hurry
your wife come out tyin her bonnet and hurryin along lookin
scared. I grabbed my sunbonnet an clipped after her, but she went
so fast I didn't get up to her till she got on the old corduroy
road. She was awful scared lookin an she didn't want me much I
see, but pretty soon she up an told me she had a note sayin there
was a messenger with news from you out to the old Green Tavern. He
had a accident an couldn't come no further. He wanted her to come
alone cause the business was private, so I stayed down by the turn
of the road till she got in an then I went cross lots an round to
the kitchen an called on Mis' Green a spell. She was tellin me
about her boarders an I told her I thought mebbe one of em was a
friend o' Hannah Heath's so she said I might peek through the key
hole of the cubberd an see. She was busy so I went alone.

"Well sir, I jest wish you'd been there. That lying nimshi was
jest goin on the sweetest, as respectful an nice a thankin your
wife fer comin, an excusin himself fer sendin fer her, and sayin
he couldn't bear to tell her what he'd come fer, an pretty soon
when she was scared 's death he up an told her a awful fib bout
you an a woman called Kate, whoever she is, an he jest poured the
words out fast so she couldn't speak, an he said things about you
he shouldn't uv, an you could see he was makin it up as he went
along, an he said he had proof. So he pointed at a pile of letters
on the table an I eyed em good through the hole in the door.
Pretty soon he ups and perposes that he carry her off in a
carriage he has all ready, and takes her to a friend of his, so
she wont be here when you come home, cause you're so bad, and she
gets up looking like she wanted to scream only she didn't dare,
and she says he dont tell the truth, it wasn't so any of it, and
if it was it was all right anyway, that you had some reason, an
she wouldn't go a step with him anywhere. An then he forgets all
about the lame ankle he had kept covered up on a chair pertendin
it was hurt fallin off his horse when the coach brought him all
the way fer I asked Mis' Green--and he ketches her by the wrists,
and he says she can't go without him, and she needn't be in such a
hurry fer