The Other Side of the Door

"Do you believe all these stories abou

me quickly. "

d last night,-I didn't mean to,-I overheard yo

they can prove that Montgomery wanted to cut out Rood they'll have a bad case against him." He didn't speak again until he pu

y mind, I should go crazy. So while the carriage bounded over the cobblestones, I was busy planning-the menu for dinner to-morrow, where to leave my ear-rings to be mended

but I called out to her that my testimony hadn't been required-and would she please get out the a

useless creature about the house for so long. Now I hurried through luncheon, and atta

ed. "There's no such great haste." But she did no

ot-cheeked from the stove to the garden, digging, carefully sprinkling, while Abby lowered the roots; then packing the earth and patting

hite waxy face, and the way her eyes had sparkled at me through her lashes, returned to my memory, powerful as the odor of her flower. I compared her with that flower-luxurious and perfect looking, as if she had grown in a hothouse; and with that strange overwhelming c

took me; and I gave up and looked it in the face. "Well, yes, and suppose he does lo

ld of me with its swarm of attendant tormenting thoughts. I was resolved to go into court, thinking of nothing but just that small measure of evi

Lord knew when!-but might be called for any time that afternoon, so I was to hold myself in readiness. This left me in a miserable state of uncertainty, which was not imp

that heart-beating expectation-soothing, and bulwarking me around with domesticity. But the excitement of the city kept invading my retreat, as if it were so full of that great matter that it had to spill over even into houses where it wasn't wa

o be a witness, and what was it I knew-why hadn't I told her-she would never have divulged on

on, and when I explained that I was still under oath, and couldn't tell anybody an

have been eating india-rubber for all we knew or cared. For Hallie poured forth all the history of the t

Rood was sitting. While he did so the other gentleman sat at a table near the door. Mr. Rood and Mr. Montgomery did not have supper together, the waiter said; did not even drink together. They talked only for a few minutes, and he thought they were disagreeing because, though their voices were not loud, they sounded angry. T

ey called the man who had come into the Poodle Dog wit

cing-school with us, and had

s, and never daring to look at Johnny Montgomery. He said he had met Johnny about twelve o'clock that night, by chance on Montgomery Street. They had walked a little way together, and Johnny had said, 'I am going away to-morrow,' and Willie Felton asked was he goin

ood upset his chair as he went out, and Johnny follow him out of the door. When he himself got outside, he said that Rood was nowhere in sight and that Johnny was standing looking up Montgomery Street. He seemed to be very an

en another young man was called, and he didn't tell any story. They had a hard time even making him answer questions. But he did tell that he knew the quarrel betwee

ried, "I'

ally was glad of was that the quarrel had been Rood's, and not Johnny's fau

ed, "he does need a g

exican woman. And she testified that for two years Carlotta Valencia's friends had known her as Mrs. Rood. "And then mother wouldn't let m

oing to talk all day we would better go somewhere

it, so we went out there and took the rust

lawyer say?" I asked, for that was

ss I guess; and of course they did find a discharged revolver in the bar. The weak spot in t

ever going to drag my unwilling spirit up into the witness-box. The summons might come at any moment,-mig

t young person will give a tired man a cup of tea?" Then, noticing my questioni

e explained, but there was business at Alma which he must look into sometime during the next five days; and week days for the present would be out of the question-by which I knew he meant he must stay on account of the trial. Then he stopped being sensible, and began teasing Hallie about her latest beau. He loves to do that, because she takes it all so seriously, and never

anted to know? Montgomery had tried to br

he began speaking, and when he stopped it

r said, "the town

ad been bribed. Just how and by whom I couldn't make out, because every one was talking at once. But

gomery who bribed the sheriff, how ca

What in the world was the matter with me lately? There was no reason in my behaving like this, as if Johnny Montgomery had been an old friend. I excused myself on the pretext of having father's bag to pack,

alf, one contradictory piece of evidence; so that all the testimony wouldn't seem to be narr