By the by," he remarked as she thanked him and they turned away along
the path, "I wanted to have a word with you--or with Ransford. Do you
know--does he know--that that confounded silly woman who lives near
to your house--Mrs. Deramore--has been saying some things--or a
thing--which--to put it plainly--might make some unpleasantness for
him?"

Mary kept a firm hand on her wits--and gave him an answer which was true
enough, so far as she was aware.

"I'm sure he knows nothing," she said. "What is it, Mr. Folliot?"

"Why, you know what happened last week," continued Folliot, glancing
knowingly at her. "The accident to that stranger. This Mrs. Deramore,
who's nothing but an old chatterer, has been saying, here and there,
that it's a very queer thing Dr. Ransford doesn't know anything about
him, and can't say anything, for she herself, she says, saw the very man
going away from Dr. Ransford's house not so long before the accident."

"I am not aware that he ever called at Dr. Ransford's," said Mary. "I
never saw him--and I was in the garden, about that very time, with your
stepson, Mr. Folliot."

"So Sackville told me," remarked Folliot. "He was present--and so was
I--when Mrs. Deramore was tattling about it in our house yesterday. He
said, then, that he'd never seen the man go to your house. You never
heard your servants make any remark about it?"

"Never!" answered Mary.

"I told Mrs. Deramore she'd far better hold her tongue," continued
Folliot. "Tittle-tattle of that sort is apt to lead to unpleasantness.
And when it came to it, it turned out that all she had seen was this
stranger strolling across the Close as if he'd just left your house.
If--there's always some if! But I'll tell you why I mentioned it to
you," he continued, nudging Mary's elbow and glancing covertly first at
her and then at his house on the far side of the garden. "Ladies that
are--getting on a bit in years, you know--like my wife, are apt to let
their tongues wag, and between you and me, I shouldn't wonder if Mrs.
Folliot has repeated what Mrs. Deramore said--eh? And I don't want the
doctor to think that--if he hears anything, you know, which he may, and,
again, he might--to think that it originated here. So, if he should ever
mention it to you, you can say it sprang from his next-door neighbour.
Bah!--they're a lot of old gossips, these Close ladies!"

"Thank you," said Mary. "But--supposing this man had been to our
house--what difference