taken the things that they said
to him as the true things, when they smiled he had thought that they
meant their smiles. And why not? ... since he always meant his. He had
always been too lazy to dislike people, and his digestion had been too
good and his ambition too slender to urge him towards spite and malice.
He had believed that he was on excellent terms with all the world.

Now that was changed. He was watched, he knew, with curious,
inquisitive, critical glances. Through no fault of his own he was
soiled and smirched. That hearty confident laugh of his must be
checked. He was afraid. Yes, he was afraid. He sat in his study and
trembled at the thought of meeting his congregation. He had done
nothing and yet his reputation was no longer clean. But he was afraid,
also, of something else. He saw, desperately against his will, the
central picture. He saw the body hanging in the dark room, Maggie
tumbling against it, the cries, the lights, the crowd ... He saw it
all, hour after hour. He was not an imaginative man, but it seemed to
him that he had actually been present at this scene. He had to attend
the inquest. That had been horrible. With all eyes upon him he stood up
and answered their detestable questions. He had trembled before those
eyes. Suddenly the self-confidence of all his life had left him. He had
stammered in his replies, his hands had trembled and he had been forced
to press them close to his sides. He had given his answers as though he
were a guilty man.

He came then slowly, in the silence of his study, to the consideration
of Grace and Maggie. This would kill Grace. She had altered, in a few
days, amazingly; she would meet nobody, but shut herself into her
bedroom. She would not see the servants. She looked at Paul as though
she, like the rest of the world, blamed him. Paul loved Grace. He had
not known before how much. They had been together all their lives and
he had taken her protection and care of him too much for granted. How
good she had been to him and for how many years! When they were happy
it seemed natural that she should look after him, but now, in the
middle of this scandal he saw that it should have been he who looked
after her. He had not looked after her. Of course, now they would have
to leave Skeaton and he knew what that departure would mean to Grace.
She was suspicious of new places and new people. Strange to think now
that almost the only person of whom she had not been suspicio