She went on.  “Nobody would have thought anything as it was, if Papa hadn’t been such a frantic fool about it.  It he’d had the pluck to stand by her, if he’d kept his head and laughed in their silly faces, instead of grizzling and growling and stampeding out of the parish as if poor Ally had disgraced him.”

“Well—­it isn’t a very pleasant thing for the Vicar of the parish——­”

“It wasn’t a very pleasant thing for any of us.  But it was beastly of him to go back on her like that.  And the silliness of it!  Caring so frightfully about what people think, and then going on so as to make them think it.”

“Think what?”

“That she really had done something.”

“Do you suppose they did?”

“Yes.  You can’t blame them.  He couldn’t have piled it on more if she had.  It’s enough to make her.”

“Oh Gwenda!”

“It would be his own fault.  Just as it’s his own fault that he hates her.”

“He doesn’t hate her.  He’s fond of all of us, in his way.”

“Wot of Ally.  Don’t you know why?  He can’t look at her without thinking of how awful he is.”

“And if he is—­a little——­You forget what he’s had to go through.”

“You mean Mummy running away from him?”

“Yes.  And Mamma’s dying.  And before that—­there was Mother.”

Gwenda raised her head.

“He killed Mother.”

“What do you mean?”

“He did.  He was told that Mother would die or go mad if she had another baby.  And he let her have Ally.  No wonder Mummy ran away from him.”

“Who told you that story?”

“Mummy.”

“It was horrid of her.”

“Everything poor Mummy did was horrid.  It was horrid of her to run away from him, I suppose.”

“Why did you tell me that?  I didn’t know it.  I’d rather not have known.”

“Well, now you do know, perhaps you’ll be sorrier for Ally.”

“I am sorry for Ally.  But I’m sorry for Papa, too.  You’re not.”

“I’d be sorry for him right enough if he wasn’t so sorry for himself.”

“Gwenda, you’re awful.”

“Because I won’t waste my pity?  Ally’s got nothing—­He’s got everything.”

“Not what he cares most for.”

“He cares most for what people think of him.  Everybody thought him a good kind husband.  Everybody thinks him a good kind father.”

* * * * *

The music suddenly ceased.  A sound of voices came instead of it.

“There,” said Gwenda.  “He’s gone in and stopped her.”

He had, that time.

And in the sudden ceasing of the Pathetic Sonata the three sisters heard the sound of wheels and the clank of horseshoes striking together.

Mr. Greatorex was not yet dead of his pneumonia.  The doctor had passed the Vicarage gate.

And as he passed he had said to himself.  “How execrably she plays.”