I was surprised, for I knew him very little, but I said, ’How do you do, Mr. Juke.  By all means.  We will go and sit over there, by the missionary bookstall.’  This was, as it sometimes is, the least frequented stall, so it was suitable for quiet conversation.

We left Clare, and went to the bookstall.  When we were seated in two chairs near it, Mr. Juke leant forward, his elbows on his knees, and said in a low voice, ’I came here to-day hoping to meet you, Lady Pinkerton.  I wanted to speak to you.  It’s about my friend, Gideon....’

‘Yes,’ I helped him out, my interest rising.  Had he anything to communicate to me on that subject?

The young man went on, staring at the ground between his knees, and it occurred to me that his profile was very like Granville Barker’s.  ’I am told,’ he said, in grave, quick, low tones, ’that you are saying things about him rather indiscriminately.  Bringing, in fact, charges against him—­suspicions, rather....  I hardly think you can be aware of the seriousness of such irresponsible gossip, such—­I can’t call it anything but slander—­when it is widely circulated.  How it grows—­spreads from person to person—­the damage, the irreparable damage it may do....’

He broke off incoherently, and was silent.  I confess I was taken aback.  But I stood to my guns.

‘And,’ I said, ’if the irresponsible gossip, as you call it, happens to be true, Mr. Juke?  What then?’

‘Then,’ he said abruptly, and looked me in the face, ’then, Lady Pinkerton, Gideon should be called on to answer to the charge in a court of law, not libelled behind his back.’

‘That,’ I said, ’will, I hope, Mr. Juke, happen at the proper time.  Meanwhile, I must ask to be allowed to follow my own methods of investigation in my own way.  Perhaps you forget that the matter concerns the tragic death of my very dear son-in-law.  I cannot be expected to let things rest where they are.’

‘I suppose,’ he said, rising as I rose, ‘that you can’t.’

‘And,’ I added, as a parting shot, ’it is always open to Mr. Gideon to bring a libel action against any one who falsely and publicly accuses him—­if he likes.’

‘Yes,’ assented the young man.

I left him standing there, and turned away to speak to Mrs. Creighton, who was passing.

I considered that Mr. Juke had been quite in his rights to speak to me as he had done, and I was not offended.  But I must say I think I had the best of the interview.  And it left me with the strong impression that he knew as well as I did that ‘his friend Gideon’ would in no circumstances venture to bring a libel action against any one in this matter.

I believed that the young clergyman suspected his friend himself, and was trying in vain to avert from him the Nemesis that his crime deserved.

Clare said to me when I rejoined her.  ’What did Mr. Juke want to speak to you about, mother?’