Bring her back here. We'll
all help get her good and drunk to-night, and she'll be all right."
There was a laugh at this, and some one said: "A little something
wouldn't hurt any of us just now, I'm thinking. Here, Jim!"
Harry Green found Mrs. Kent sitting on the riverbank some distance above
the boat landing.
She looked up at the sound of his approach, but did not speak. Dropping
down beside her, the man said: "I'm damned sorry about this, Martha.
I never dreamed I was starting anything, or I would have kept my mouth
shut."
"It is Brian, all right, Harry," she answered, slowly. "It is funny, but
he has been on my mind all day. I never dreamed that it was this part
of the country where he was supposed to have been drowned, or I wouldn't
have come here."
"Well, what does it matter, anyway?" returned the man. "I don't see that
it can make any difference. We don't need to go down there where he is,
and it is damned certain that they won't call on us."
Looking out over the river, the woman spoke as if thinking aloud: "This
is just the sort of place he would love, Harry--the river and hills and
woods. He never cared for the city--always wanted to get away into
the country somewhere. Tell me, what is she really like? Does she look
like--like--well,--like any of our crowd?"
One by one, the man picked a number of pebbles from among the dead
leaves and the short grass within reach of his hand, as he answered:
"Oh, I was just kidding when I raved about her to the bunch.
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