l you the truth I wasn't
sufficiently interested in her to quarrel with her--but there was a
slight coolness between us, and for some time we were not on good terms.
Then--well, to cut a long story short, one day anonymous letters and
post cards began to fly about the parish, bearing scurrilous comments on
that unhappy woman's past history. At first the Vicar tried to hush up
the matter, but as you may imagine"--her voice rang with delicate
scorn--"everyone else thoroughly enjoyed talking things over and
wondering and discussing--with the result that the Bishop of the Diocese
heard the tale and came down to hold a private inquiry into the matter."

She stopped short and held out her hand for his cup.

"More tea? I haven't finished yet."

"No more, thank you." He rose, placed his cup on the tray and sat down
again in silence.

"The Bishop suggested it was a matter for the police. The writer of
those vile communications must be discovered and punished at all costs,
he said. So not only the authorities but all the amateur detectives of
both sexes in the neighbourhood went to work to find the culprit. And
_I_ was the culprit they found."

"You?" For once in his life Anstice was startled out of his usual
self-control.

"Yes. They fixed upon me as the anonymous writer of those loathsome
scrawls; and the district was provided with a sensation after its own
heart."

"But the idea's absurd--monstrous!" Looking at her as she leaned back
among her cushions, with her air of delicate distinction, Anstice could
hardly believe the story she was telling him.

"So I thought at first." Her blue eyes narrowed. "But in some marvellous
manner they brought the charge home to me. I was the only one, they
said, who knew the story. I had wormed it out of the silly woman, they
alleged, and had then, owing to the subsequent coolness between us,
traded upon my knowledge in order to drive her out of the place."

"But others must have known the story?"

"Yes. But I was the only one in Littlefield who knew it."

"So they said. But in reality----"

"In reality, of course, it was known to someone else. But that person
took care to keep in the background. When once I had been suggested as
the culprit a quantity of evidence was forthcoming to clinch the matter,
so to speak. I was never particularly popular here, and people were
quite ready to believe me capable of the deed." She smiled faintly. "I
confess one or two things looked black for