hn's lips when she said,
"What would probably be said of yourself"--audible that is to Elinor,
not to the mother. She sprang up as this murmur came to her ear: "Oh, if
you are going to prejudge the case, there is nothing for me to say!"

"I should be very sorry to prejudge the case, or to judge it all," said
John. "I am too closely interested to be judicial. Let somebody who
knows nothing about it be your judge. Let the accusations be submitted--to
your Rector, say; he's a sensible man enough, and knows the world. He
won't be scared by a rubber at the club, or that sort of thing. Let him
inquire, and then your mind will be at rest."

"There is only one difficulty, John," said Mrs. Dennistoun. "Mr. Hudson
would be the best man in the world, only for one thing--that it is from
his sister and his wife that the warning came."

"Oh!" said John. This fact seemed to take him aback in the most
ludicrous way. He sat and gazed at them, and had not another word to
say. Perhaps the fact that he himself who suggested the inquiry was
still better informed of the true state of the case, and of the truth of
the accusation, than were those to whom he might have submitted it, gave
him a sense of the hopelessness and also absurdity of the attempt more
than anything else could have done.

"And that proves, if there was nothing else," said Elinor, "how false
it is: for how could Mrs. Hudson and Mary Dale know? They are not
fashionable people, they are not in society. How could they or any one
like them know anything of Phil"--she stopped quickly, drew herself up,
and added--"of Mr. Compton, I mean?"

"They might not know, but they might state their authority," Mrs.
Dennistoun said; "and if the Rector cannot be used to help us, surely,
John, you are a man of the world, you are not like a woman, unacquainted
with evidence. Why should not you do it, though you are, as you kindly
say, an interested party?"

"He shall not do it. I forbid him to do it. If he takes in hand anything
of the kind he must say good-by to me."

"You hear?" said John; "but I could not do it in any case, my dear
Elinor. I am too near. I never could see this thing all round. Why not
your lawyer, old Lynch, a decent old fellow----"

"I will tell him the same," cried Elinor; "I will never speak to him
again."

"My dear," said her mother, "you will give everybody the idea that you
don't want to know the truth."

"I know the truth already," said Elinor, rising with