help that.”

“I think it is better to know the truth. I don’t like suspicions. They are sure to lead to harm. James, let me put it to the doctor as I see it, and see what he thinks of it.”

“As you please, dear.”

“It’s like this. Have you seen anything of that girl or observed her much?”

“I certainly have.”

“Then, of course, you can see that she is one of the best of the mountain people, can’t you? Well! She has promised to marry — promised to marry — think of it! one of the wildest, most reckless of those mountain boys, one that she knows very well has been in illicit distilling. He is a lawbreaker in that way; and, more than that, he drinks, and in a drunken row he shot dead his friend.”