home?"

"I can't be sure, sir, what time it was. Broom's haven't got no clock;
they tells the time by the sun."

"Was it dark?"

"Oh, yes, it was dark, sir, except for the moon. That had been up a good
bit, for I hadn't hurried myself."

"And what did you see or hear, when you got near the Willow Pond?"

The question sent Mrs. Roy into fresh tears; into fresh tremor.

"I never saw nothing," she reiterated. "The last time I set eyes on
Rachel Frost was at church on Sunday."

"What is the matter with you?" cried Mr. Verner, with asperity. "Do you
mean to deny that anything had occurred to put you in a state of
agitation, when you were met by young Broom?"

Mrs. Roy only moaned.

"Did you hear people quarrelling?" he persisted.

"I heard people quarrelling," she sobbed. "I did. But I never saw, no
more than the dead, who it was."

"Whose voices were they?"

"How can I tell, sir? I wasn't near enough. There were two voices, a
man's and a woman's; but I couldn't catch a single word, and it did not
last long. I declare, if it were the last word I had to speak, that I
heard no more of the quarrel than that, and I wasn't no nearer to it."

She really did seem to speak the truth, in spite of her shrinking fear,
which was evident to all. Mr. Verner inquired, with incredulity equally
evident, whether that was sufficient to put her into the state of tremor
spoken of by young Broom.

Mrs. Roy hung her head.

"I'm timid at quarrels, 'specially if it's at night," she faintly
answered.

"And was it just the hearing of that quarrel that made you sink down on
your knees, and clasp hold of a tree?" continued Mr. Verner. Upon which
Mrs. Roy let fall her head on her hands, and sobbed piteously.

Robin Frost interrupted, sarcasm in his tone--"There's a tale going on,
outside, that you saw a ghost, and it was that as frighted you," he said
to her. "Perhaps, sir"--turning to Mr. Verner--"you'll ask her whose
ghost it was."

This appeared to put the finishing touch to Mrs. Roy's discomfiture.
Nothing could be made of her for a few minutes. Presently, her agitation
somewhat subsided; she lifted her head, and spoke as with a desperate
effort.

"It's true," she said. "I'll make a clean breast of it. I did see a
ghost, and it was that as upset me so. It wasn't the quarrelling
frighted me: I thought nothing of that."

"What do you mean by saying you saw a ghost?" sharply reproved Mr.
Verner.

"It was a ghost, sir," she