y agreeable, I know, Mrs. Grimes.
Still we must act as we think right, let what will follow. Mrs.
Comegys has already called upon me to ask an explanation of my
conduct wards her."

"She has!" Mrs. Grimes seemed sadly distressed. "What did you say to
her?"

"I told her just what I had heard."

"Did she ask your author?" Mrs. Grimes was most pale with suspense.

"She did."

"Of course you did not mention my name."

"She asked the author of the charge, and I named you."

"Oh dear, Mrs. Markle! I wish you hadn't done that. I shall be
involved in a world of trouble, and the reputation of a tattler and
mischief-maker. What did she say?"

"Not one word."

"She didn't deny it?"

"No."

"Of course she could not. Well, that is some satisfaction at least.
She might have denied it, and tried make me out a liar, and there
would have been plenty to believe her word against mine. I am glad
she didn't deny it. She didn't say a word?"

"No."

"Did she look guilty?"

"You would have thought so, if you had seen her."

"What did she do?"

"She sat with her eyes upon the floor for some time, and then rose
up, and without uttering a word, left the house."

"I wish she had said something. It would have been a satisfaction to
know what she thought. But I suppose the poor woman was so
confounded, that she didn't know what to say."

"So it appeared to me. She was completely stunned. I really pitied
her from my heart. But want of principle should never be
countenanced. If we are to have social integrity, we must mark with
appropriate condemnation all deviations therefrom. It was
exceedingly painful, but the path of duty was before me, and I
walked in it without faltering."

Mrs. Grimes was neither so clear-sighted, nor so well satisfied with
what she had done, as all this. She left the house of Mrs. Markle
feeling very unhappy. Although she had been using her little unruly
member against Mrs. Comegys with due industry, she was all the while
on the most friendly terms with her, visiting at her house and being
visited. It was only a few days, before that she had taken tea and
spent an evening with her. Not that Mrs. Grimes was deliberately
hypocritical, but she had a free tongue, and, like too many in
society, more cautious about what they said than she, much better
pleased to see evil than good in a neighbour. There are very few of
us, perhaps, who have not something of this fault--an exceedingly
bad fault, by the way