terposing, "that you
should inquire first whether there is any evidence? It would make you
all look very ridiculous if you got up an inquiry and found no proof
against Mr Wentworth. Is it likely he would do such a thing all at
once without showing any signs of wickedness beforehand--is it
possible? To be sorry is quite a different thing, but I don't see--"

"Ladies don't understand such matters," said the Rector, who had been
kept at bay so long that he began to get desperate. "I beg your
pardon, my dear, but it is not a matter for you to discuss. We shall
take good care that there is plenty of evidence," said the perplexed
man--"I mean, before we proceed to do anything," he added, growing
very red and confused. When Mr Morgan caught his wife's eye, he got as
nearly into a passion as was possible for so good a man. "You know
what I mean," he said, in his peremptory way; "and, my dear, you will
forgive me for saying this is not a matter to be discussed before a
lady." When he had uttered this bold speech, the Rector took a few
little walks up and down the room, not caring, however, to look at his
wife. He was ashamed of the feeling he had that her absence would set
him much more at ease with Elsworthy, but still could not help being
conscious that it was so. He did not say anything more, but he walked
up and down the room with sharp short steps, and betrayed his
impatience very manifestly. As for Mrs Morgan, who was a sensible
woman, she saw that the time had come for her to retire from the
field.

"I think the first thing to be done is to try every possible means of
finding the girl," she said, getting up from her seat; "but I have no
doubt what you decide upon will be the best. You will find me in the
drawing-room when you want me, William." Perhaps her absence for the
first moment was not such a relief to her husband as he had expected.
The mildness of her parting words made it very apparent that she did
not mean to take offence; and he perceived suddenly, at a glance, that
he would have to tell her all he was going to do, and encounter her
criticism single-handed, which was rather an appalling prospect to the
Rector. Mrs Morgan, for her part, went up-stairs not without a little
vexation, certainly, but with a comforting sense of the opportunity
which awaited her. She felt that, in his unprotected position, as soon
as she left him, the Rector would conduct himself rashly, and that her
time was still to come.

The