"On the night she murdered him," corrected Mrs. Marshall, vehemently. "Will you be wiser, than the law, Ruth? I tell you it was she who struck the blow. I do not say that she had not good cause, for the man was a brute. But she had no right to take his life!" "She didn't--she didn't," asseverated Ruth, with quite as much vehemence as her aunt had shewn. "The blow was struck through the window for the sake of getting a red---- Why, whatever is the matter, aunt?" "Nothing--nothing!" gasped Mrs. Marshall. She had seated herself suddenly on a convenient box, and with her hand to her side, was gazing at her niece with an ashen face. "A stitch in the side--that's all, child! Why did your father tell you all this--and what does he know about the red pocket-book?" "I have heard scraps of information at times," said Ruth, trying to get out of the unpleasant position in which her tongue had placed her. "But I know very little; I don't want to have anything to do with the matter. Please don't ask me anything more about it aunt." "You have said so much that I must know all," said Mrs. Marshall, so fiercely that the girl was frightened. "If you refuse to tell me, I shall speak to your father." "He is the very best person to whom you could speak," replied Miss Cass, with some defiance in her voice, for her temper was rising at her aunt's tone. "But please don't bring me into it." "I shall act as I think best. If this case has been reopened--as I judge from your words, it has been--why was I not informed? "I refer you to papa," said Ruth, coldly. "And, after all," she added, "I do not see what you have to do with it, Aunt Inez." "More than you think," replied Mrs. Marshall, tightening her thin lips. Then Ruth did a very foolish thing--a thing she repented of for many a long day after. "What about Job?" she asked. "Does he also take an interest in the case?" Mrs. Marshall sprang forward in the most dramatic fashion, and seized her niece by the arm. "You have been asking him questions," she said. "And what if I have?" cried the girl, twisting herself away. "Anyone has a right to ask questions, I suppose? But he told me nothing." "He had nothing to tell." "In that case you need not look so fiercely at me, aunt." Mrs. Marshall realised how indiscreet was her demeanour. "Don't trouble about me, child," she said, with a forced laugh. "I have done nothing to be ashamed of." "I never thought you had, aunt!" "Mrs. Jenner," continued Aunt Inez, exactly as though she were repeating a lesson, "was a flirt. When she married a brute, she only got her just punishment. I did my best to be kind to her; but I always hated her. It is no use my denying the fact--I did hate her! If you are a woman, Ruth, if you have your grandmother's blood in your veins, you will understand."