When he got home that night, he met Belinda Lamb coming out of the gate; when he entered, he saw by Elmira's face that she had heard.

She was binding shoes very fast; her little face was white, except for red spots on the cheeks, her mouth shut hard.

Her mother kept looking at her anxiously.
"You'd better not worry till you know you've got something to worry about; likely as not, they asked him to go with them 'cause Lucina's beau don't know how to ride very well, and he couldn't help it," she said, with a curious aside of speech, as if Jerome, though on the stage, was not to hear.
He took no notice, but that night he had a word with his sister after their mother had gone to bed.

"If he has asked you to marry him, you ought to trust him," said he.

"I don't believe his going to ride with that girl means anything.