"And she wouldn't have it," interrupted Robin, looking up for the first time with a wild expression of despair. "She said she had things to get at Mother Duff's, and should stop a bit there, a-gossiping. It'll be on my mind by day and by night, that if I'd went with her, harm couldn't have come." "And that was how she left you," pursued Mr. Verner. "You did not see her after that? You know nothing further of her movements?" "Nothing further," assented Robin. "I watched her down the lane as far as the turning, and that was the last." "Did she go to Mrs. Duff's, I wonder?" asked Mr. Verner. Oh, yes; several of those present could answer that. There was the parcel brought up by Dan Duff, as testimony; and, if more had been needed, Mrs. Duff herself had afforded it, for she made one of the crowd outside. "We must have Mrs. Duff in," said Mr. Verner. Accordingly, Mrs. Duff was brought in--a voluble lady with red hair. Mr. Verner politely asked her to be seated, but she replied that she'd prefer to stand, if 'twas all the same. She was used to standing in her shop, and she couldn't never sit for a minute together when she was upset. "Did Rachel Frost purchase things of you this evening, Mrs. Duff?" "Well, she did, and she didn't," responded Mrs. Duff. "I never calls it purchasing of things, sir, when a customer comes in and says, 'Just cut me off so and so, and send it up.' They be sold, of course, if you look at it in that light; but I'm best pleased when buyers examines the goods, and chats a bit over their merits. Susan Peckaby, now, she--" "What did Rachel Frost buy?" interrupted Mr. Verner, who knew what Mrs. Duff's tongue was, when it was once set going.