He's out there now
looking after it."
"Yes."
"I expect August'll be married as soon's he gets home."
"And that will be when?"
"Can't tell. It may be a month and it may be a year."
"Quite an uncertainty, indeed."
"Yes," heaving a deep sigh, "I'll be proper glad when they are settled."
"I should think so. You have friends in Ridgewood."
"None to speak of."
"The Vanes--"
"Oh, yes, I know. They wan't my friends in petic'lar. Victoria was a
pretty girl, and some folks called her smart, but I never could see it.
Poor thing, it was an awful end she came to at last," and the widow wiped
away a sympathetic tear.
"It was, indeed," agreed the detective. "Your son thought much of the
girl?"
"Of Victoria Vane?"
"Yes."
"Law, no. Didn't I tell you that August was keepin' company with the
Alstine girl?"
"Yes; but young men sometimes have more strings than one, you know."
"But August ain't that kind."
"Artless, old mother!" thought Keene. "She knows nothing of the doings of
this son of her's." Then, thinking of the forger whom he had come so near
capturing that evening, Keene said: "You are from New York, I believe,
Mrs.
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