He did not like to discharge him without first consulting
Mrs. Kate, for he knew that Ches Mason was in the habit of talking
things over with her, and since Mason was gone, she had assumed an air
of latent authority. But Mrs. Kate had looked at him with such
reproachful eyes, that day at dinner, and her voice had sounded so
squeezed and unnatural, that he had felt too far removed from her for
any discussion whatever to take place between them.
Besides, he knew he could prove absolutely nothing against Dick, if Dick
were disposed toward flat denial. He might suspect--but the facts showed
Ford the aggressor, and Mose also. What if Mrs. Kate declined to believe
that Dick had put that jug of whisky in the kitchen, and had afterward
given it to Ford? Ford had no means of knowing just what tale Dick had
told her, but he did know that Mrs. Kate eyed him doubtfully, and that
her conversation was forced and her manner constrained.
And Josephine was worse. Josephine had not spoken to him all that day.
At breakfast she had not been present, and at dinner she had kept her
eyes upon her plate and had nothing to say to any one.
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