wever,
to speak evil of my friends. 'He who calleth his brother a fool,' I
think the good old Book says something of that."

Girdlestone was staggered for a moment by this unexpected counter.
Then he took off his broad-brimmed hat and bowed his head with drooping
lids.

"Out of the mouths of babes and of sucklings!" he cried. "You are
right. I spoke too warmly. It is my zeal for you which betrays me."

"The same zeal which made you tell me so many things which I now know to
be untrue about Mr. Dimsdale," said Kate, waxing more fearless as her
mind turned to her wrongs.

"You are becoming impertinent," he answered, and resumed his
calculations in his note-book.

Kate cowered back into her corner again, while the train thundered and
screeched and rattled through the darkness. Looking through the steamy
window, nothing was to be seen save the twinkle here and there of the
lights of the scattered country cottages. Occasionally a red signal
lamp would glare down upon her like the bloodshot eye of some demon who
presided over this kingdom of iron and steam. Far behind a lurid trail
of smoke marked the way that they had come. To Kate's mind it was all
as weird and gloomy and cheerless even as the thoughts within her.

And they were gloomy enough. Where was she going? How long was she
going for? What was she to do when there? On all these points she was
absolutely ignorant. What was the object of this sudden flight from
London? Her guardian could have separated her from the Dimsdales in
many less elaborate ways than this. Could it be that he intended some
system of pressure and terrorism by which she should be forced to accept
Ezra as a suitor. She clenched her little white teeth as she thought of
it, and registered a vow that nothing in this world would ever bring her
to give in upon that point. There was only one bright spot in her
outlook. When she reached her destination she would at once write to
Mrs. Dimsdale, tell her where she was, and ask her frankly for an
explanation of their sudden silence. How much wiser if she had done so
before. Only a foolish pride had withheld her from it.

The train had already stopped at one large junction. Looking out
through the window she saw by the lamps that it was Guildford.
After another interminable interval of clattering and tossing and
plunging through the darkness, they came to a second station of
importance, Petersfield. "We are nearing our destinati