In such manner Kate Kilgour learned of the existence of Zelie Dionne and of the child whom Walker Farr had protected; Mr. Briggs's zeal in the interest of his employer had made him a partisan in that affair, with easy conscience regarding the matter of the details. The bald record showed that Farr and the girl had cared for the child between them, had nursed it with grief and solicitude, had borne it to the plot of land where the little graves were crowded so closely. Mr. Briggs complacently avoided dates and age and the minuter details. He even pleaded the case, having caught a cue from Colonel Dodd; his record left the impression that Walker Farr, who had come from nowhere--nobody knew when--had lived in Marion unknown and unnoticed at the time when he had compassed the ruin of a confiding girl. “A scalawag, and a bad one!” commented Mr. Briggs, closing his note-book. “And of course there's worse to come! Posing as a reformer--that's the way such renegades work the thing. A new game for every new place!” And Kate Kilgour, remembering the vagrant on the broad highway, wrote down the arraignment of this person, trying to understand her emotions. Her own eyes had seen him garbed as a tramp, plainly a homeless nomad. Her ears had just listened to the story of his shame. But after a time, in spite of what she had seen and heard, that strange instinct which dominates the feminine mind in spite of what the mere senses affirm took possession of her. She had known from the first that Richard Dodd's garments, his attitude, his professions, his position did not make him what her woman's heart desired. But, somehow, this other man, no matter what he seemed to be from outward appearance, stood forth for her from all the world. At times, in her ponderings, she had disgustedly termed her mood regarding him pure lunacy. Then she gave rein to the domination of her intuition; the man was not what he seemed to be! She determined to put him out of her thoughts for ever. Just then, however, writing out the story of his turpitude, she must needs have him in her mind. She wondered whether he were honest in his attempts to help the poor people. She had believed that he was when he had faced Colonel Dodd. She determined that she would make some investigation of her own in regard to the mysterious person who had taken such possession of her thoughts since she had met him in the highway--whose personality had so pricked her curiosity. She comforted herself by calling her interest mere curiosity. That was it! If this man were what they claimed he was she might help in revealing him as an enemy of the poor folks. And then to her came another thought. She looked around the offices where she worked and bitter lines were etched in her forehead and about her mouth. The place had become hateful. She was conscious of a passionate desire to be free from the atmosphere of that central web of the Great Spider. She bent over her work and hurried.