ith Mrs.
Ransom?"

"I have no reason for deceiving you in that regard," replied Mr. Harper.
"I did not come up from New York on the same train they did. They must
have come up in the morning, for when I arrived at the place they call
the Ferry, I saw them standing on the hotel steps ready to step into the
coach. I spoke to Mrs. Ransom then, but only a word. My grip-sack had
been put under the driver's seat, and I saw that I was expected to ride
with him, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. Mrs. Ransom saw
it too and possibly my natural hesitation, for she turned to me after she
had seen her sister safely ensconced inside, and said something about her
regret at having subjected me to such inconvenience, but did not offer to
make room for me in the body of the coach, though there was room enough
if the other had been the quiet lady she was herself. But she was not,
and possibly this was Mrs. Ransom's excuse for her apparent lack of
consideration for me. Before we reached the point where the lane cuts in,
I became aware of some disturbance behind me, and when we really got
there, I heard first the coach door opening, then your wife's voice,
raised in entreaty to the driver, calling on him to stop before her
sister jumped out and hurt herself. 'She is deaf and very wild' was all
the explanation she gave after Miss Hazen had leaped into the wet road
and darted from sight into what looked to me, in the darkness, like a
tangled mass of bushes. Then she said something about her having had
hard work to keep her still till we got this far; but that she was sure
she would find her way to the hotel, and that we mustn't bother ourselves
about it for she wasn't going to; Anitra and she had run this road too
many times when they were children. That is all I have to tell of my
intercourse with these ladies prior to our appearance at the hotel. I
think it right for me to clear the slate, Ransom. Who knows what we may
wish to write upon it next?"

A slight shiver on Ransom's part was the sole answer he gave to this
innuendo; then both settled themselves to work, the eyes of either
flashing hither and thither from one small object to another, in this
seemingly deserted room. In the momentary silence which followed, the
even breathing of the woman in the adjoining room could be distinctly
heard. It seemed to affect Mr. Ransom deeply, though he strove hard to
maintain the business-like attitude he had assumed from the beginning