Page:Mistress Madcap Surrenders (1926).pdf/49

 Charity from her lap, she rose and went to place her hand upon her husband's arm.

"Nay, Mother, let the matter wait," interposed John Condit appealingly, wishing he had not told his mother so soon of the incident, as he realized how four years of warfare had affected her nerves.

"Be quiet, John!" answered Mistress Condit sternly. She turned back to Squire Condit, as her son, chuckling to himself at his mother's tone, subsided meekly upon the bench beside Charity. "Now, Samuel, ye shall hear the tale!"

"Well, Mary," said the Squire soothingly, when she had ended her recital, "no need to rush into trouble. 'Twas a mean thing for the woman to have done—heartless, certainly—yet this warfare hath brought worse things to pass; and since the matter turned out as it did, better to let it drop. It was partly our fault, for an we had not allowed the girls to start off i' the face o' the storm, they need not to ha' been caught thus, and nothing would then ha' happened."

"But the man Hawtree," began Charity tremblingly. "And, oh, Mother, that Jaffray" She broke off, shuddering.

"Hawtree!" exclaimed her parents and brother together. "Jaffray!" John looked at her, astonished.

"Why did not Hitty tell me those villains were present!" he said angrily.