mbrose, driven to bay, "I entirely decline to
discuss the point."

"I thought you trusted me, Augustin."

"So I do--certainly--and I always consult you about my own affairs."

"I think I have as much right to know about John as you have," retorted
his wife, who seemed deeply hurt.

"That is a point then which you ought to settle with John," said the
vicar. "I cannot betray his confidence, even to you."

"Oh--then he has been making confidences to you?"

"How in the world should I know about his affairs unless he told me?"

"One may see a great many things without being told about them, you
know," answered Mrs. Ambrose, assuming a prim expression as she examined
a small spot in the tablecloth. The vicar was walking up and down the
room. Her speech, which was made quite at random, startled him. She, too,
might easily have observed John's manner when he was with Mrs. Goddard;
she might have guessed the secret, and have put her own interpretation on
John's sudden melancholy.

"What may one see?" asked the vicar quickly.

"I did not say one could see anything," answered his wife. "But from your
manner I infer that there really is something to see. Wait a minute--what
can it be?"

"Nothing--my dear, nothing," said the vicar desperately.

"Oh, Augustin, I know you so well," said the implacable Mrs. Ambrose. "I
am quite sure now, that it is something I have seen. Deny it, my dear."

The vicar was silent and bit his long upper lip as he marched up and down
the room.

"Of course--you cannot deny it," she continued. "It is perfectly clear.
The very first day he arrived--when you came down from the Hall, in the
evening--Augustin, I have got it! It is Mrs. Goddard--now don't tell me
it is not. I am quite sure it is Mrs. Goddard. How stupid of me! Is it
not Mrs. Goddard?"

"If you are so positive," said the vicar, resorting to a form of defence
generally learned in the nursery, "why do you ask me?"

"I insist upon knowing, Augustin, is it, or is it not, Mrs. Goddard?"

"My dear, I positively refuse to answer any more questions," said the
vicar with tardy firmness.

"Oh, it is no matter," retorted Mrs. Ambrose in complete triumph, "if it
were not Mrs. Goddard of course you would say so at once."

A form of argument so unanswerable, that the vicar hastily left the room
feeling that he had basely betrayed John's confidence, and muttering
something about intolerable curiosity. Mrs. Ambrose had vanquished her
husband