aid, "where such names as that
are believed against me?" She had not heard the name, nor had he, and
they were in the dark;--but she pleaded her cause well, and appealed
again and again to her husband's promise to take her to the deanery.
His stronghold was that of marital authority,--authority unbounded,
legitimate, and not to be questioned. "But if you commanded me to
quarrel with papa?" she asked.

"I have commanded nothing of the kind."

"But if you did?"

"Then you must quarrel with him."

"I couldn't,--and I wouldn't," said she, burying her face upon the arm
of the sofa.

At any rate on the next morning she didn't go, nor, indeed, did he come
to fetch her, so convinced had he been of the persistency of her
obstinacy. But he told her as he left her that if she separated herself
from him now, then the separation must be lasting. Her father, however,
foreseeing this threat, had told her just the reverse. "He is an
obstinate man," the Dean had said, "but he is good and conscientious,
and he loves you."

"I hope he loves me."

"I am sure he does. He is not a fickle man. At present he has put
himself into his brother's hands, and we must wait till the tide turns.
He will learn by degrees to know how unjust he has been."

So it came to pass that Lord George went down to Cross Hall in the
morning and that Mary accompanied her father to the deanery the same
afternoon. The Dean had already learned that it would be well that he
should face his clerical enemies as soon as possible. He had already
received a letter worded in friendly terms from the Bishop, asking him
whether he would not wish to make some statement as to the occurrence
at Scumberg's Hotel which might be made known to the clergymen of the
Cathedral. He had replied by saying that he wished to make no such
statement, but that on his return to Brotherton he would be very
willing to tell the Bishop the whole story if the Bishop wished to hear
it. He had been conscious of Mr. Groschut's hand even among the civil
phrases which had come from the Bishop himself. "In such a matter," he
said in his reply, "I am amenable to the laws of the land, and am not,
as I take it, amenable to any other authority." Then he went on to say
that for his own satisfaction he should be very glad to tell the story
to the Bishop.

The story as it reached Brotherton had, no doubt, given rise to a great
deal of scandal and a great deal of amusement. Pountner and Holdenough
were t