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Barron's campaign. There were warm expressions indeed of sympathy and indignation to be found among them, but on the whole Meynell realized that his own side's belief in him was showing some signs of distress, while the attack upon him was increasing in violence. His silence even to his most intimate friends, even to his Bishop; the disappearance from England of the other persons named in the scandal; the constant elaborations and embellishments of the story as it passed from mouth to mouth--these things were telling against him steadily and disastrously.
As he hung over the fire, he anxiously reconsidered his conduct toward the Bishop, while Catharine's phrase--"He, too, has his rights!" lingered in his memory. He more than suspected that his silence had given pain; and his affection for the Bishop made the thought a sore one.
But after all what good would have been done had he even put the Bishop in possession of the whole story? The Bishop's bare denial would have been added to his; nothing more. There could have been no explanation, public or private; nothing to persuade those who did not wish to be persuaded.
His thought wandered hither and thither. From the dim regions of the past there emerged a letter....
"My dear old Meynell, the thing is to be covered up. Ralph will acknowledge the child, and all precautions are to be taken. I think what he does he will do thoroughly. Alice wishes it--and what can I do, either for her or for the child? Nothing. And for me, I see but one way out--which will be the best for her too in the end, poor darling. My wife's letter a week ago destroyed my last hope. I am going out to-night--and I shall not come back. Stand by her, Richard. I think this kind of lie on which we are all embarked is wrong (not that you had anything to do with it!) But it is society which is wrong and imposes it on us. Anyway, the choice is made, and now you must support and protect her--and the child--for my sake. For I know you love me, dear boy--little as I deserve it. I