He had not spoiled a good story in
the telling.
Mrs. Porter went to her room and sat down to think. She was a woman of
action, and she soon reached a decision.
The errant pair must be followed, and at once. Her great mind, playing
over the situation like a searchlight, detected a connection between
this elopement and the disappearance of William Bannister. She had long
since marked Kirk down as a malcontent, and she now labelled the absent
Mamie as a snake in the grass who had feigned submission to her rule,
while meditating all the time the theft of the child and the elopement
with Kirk. She had placed the same construction on Mamie's departure
with Kirk as had Mr. Penway, showing that it is not only great minds
that think alike.
A latent conviction as to the immorality of all artists, which had been
one of the maxims of her late mother, sprang into life. She blamed
herself for having allowed a nurse of such undeniable physical
attractions to become a member of the household. Mamie's very quietness
and apparent absence of bad qualities became additional evidence
against her now, Mrs. Porter arguing that these things indicated deep
deceitfulness. She told herself, what was not the case, that she had
never trusted that girl.
But Lora Delane Porter was not a woman to waste time in retrospection.
She had not been in her room five minutes before her mind was made up.
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