 being brought to believe that you, my good friend, were
utterly unworthy of any true woman's devotion. Remember, too, her brother's
influence, and - well, her mother's. Now, on the evening before she accepted
Mutimer, she called at the Vicarage alone. Unfortunately I was away - was
walking with you, in fact. What she desired to say to me I can only conjecture;
but it is not impossible that she was driven by the common impulse which sends
young girls to their pastor when they are in grievous trouble and without other
friends.«
    »Why did you never tell me of that?« cried Hubert.
    »Because it would have been useless, and, to tell you the truth, I felt I
was in an awkward position, not far from acting indiscreetly. I did go to see
her the next morning, but only saw her mother, and heard of the engagement.
Adela never spoke to me of her visit.«
    »But she may have come for quite other reasons. Her subsequent behaviour
remains.«
    »Certainly. Here again I may be altogether wrong, but it seems to me that to
a woman of her character there was only one course open. Having become his wife,
it behoved her to be loyal, and especially - remember this - it behoved her to
put her position beyond doubt in the eyes of others, in the eyes of one, it may
be, beyond all. Does that throw no light on your meeting with her in the wood,
of which you make so much?«
    Hubert's countenance shone, but only for an instant.
    »Ingenious,« he replied, good-humouredly.
    »Possibly no more,« Mr. Wyvern rejoined. »Take it as a fanciful sketch of
how a woman's life might be ordered. Such a life would not lack its dignity.«
    Neither spoke for a while.
    »You will call on Mrs. Westlake as you pass through London?« Mr. Wyvern next
inquired.
    »Mrs. Westlake?« the other repeated absently. »Yes, I dare say I shall see
her.«
    »Do, by all means.«
    They began to descend the hill.
    The Walthams no longer lived in Wanley. A year ago the necessities of Alfred
Waltham's affairs had led to a change; he and his wife and their two children,
together with Mrs. Waltham the dowager, removed to what the auctioneers call a
commodious residence on the outskirts of Belwick. Alfred remarked that it was as
well not to
