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vinced by Flaxman's arguments for delay. She was rapidly coming to the belief that it should have been handed instantly to the Rector.
A step outside.
"Uncle Hugh!" said Mary, springing up. "I'll go and see if there are any scones for tea!" And she vanished into the kitchen, while Catharine admitted her brother-in-law.
"Meynell is to join me here in an hour or so," he said, as he followed her into the little sitting-room. Catharine closed the door, and looked at him anxiously. He lowered his voice.
"Barron called on him this morning--had only just gone when I arrived. Meynell has seen the letter to Dawes. I informed him of the letter to you, and I think he would like to have some talk with you."
Catharine's face showed her relief.
"Oh, I am glad--I am glad he knows!"--she said, with emphasis. "We were wrong to delay."
"He told me nothing--and I asked nothing. But, of course, what the situation implies is unfortunately clear enough!--no need to talk of it. He won't and he can't vindicate himself, except by a simple denial. At any ordinary time that would be enough. But now--with all the hot feeling there is on the other subject--and the natural desire to discredit him--" Flaxman shrugged his shoulders despondently. "Rose's maid--you know the dear old thing she is--came to her last night, in utter distress about the talk in the village. There was a journalist here, a reporter from one of the papers that have been opposing Meynell most actively--"
"They are quite right to oppose him," interrupted Catharine quickly. Her face had stiffened.
"Perfectly! But you see the temptation?"
Catharine admitted it. She stood by the window looking out into the rain. And as she did so she became aware of a figure--the slight figure of a woman--walking fast toward the cottage along the narrow grass causeway that ran between the two ponds. On either side of the woman the autumn trees swayed and bent under the rising storm, and every now and then a mist of