Morna’s fine eyes were filled with tears; the sight of them put out the flame that had leapt for once from stolid Hugh, and he took her hand in his own great soothing grasp.

“Come and sit down,” he said, “and tell me all about it.  Have I ever taken anybody’s part against you, Morna, that you should think me likely to begin now?”

“No; but you would if you thought they were right and I was wrong.”

Hugh reflected until they reached the garden-seat upon the lawn.

“Well, not openly, at all events,” said he; “and not under any circumstances I can conceive in which Mrs. Venables was the other person.”

“But she isn’t the only other person; that is just it.  Oh, Hugh, you do like Rachel, don’t you?”

“I do,” he said emphatically.  “But surely you haven’t been quarrelling with her?”

“No, indeed!  And that is exactly why I have quarrelled with Mrs. Venables, because I wouldn’t refuse to go to the dinner-party at Normanthorpe to-night!”

Woodgate was naturally nonplussed.

“Wouldn’t refuse?” he echoed.

“Yes.  She actually asked me not to go; and now I do believe she has gone driving round to ask everybody else!”

Woodgate’s amazement ended in a guffaw.

“And that is what you quarrelled about!” he roared.  “The woman must be mad.  What reason did she give?”

“She had a reason, dear.”

“But not a good one!  There can be no excuse for such an action, let alone a good reason!”

Morna looked at her husband with sidelong anxiety, wondering whether he would say as much when he had heard all.  She was sure enough of him.  But as yet they had never differed on a point that mattered, and the one which was coming mattered infinitely to Morna.

“Hugh,” she began, “do you remember being with Rachel yesterday at Hornby, when she was introduced to Sir Baldwin Gibson?”

“Perfectly,” said Hugh.

“He is the judge, you know.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Did you think they looked as though they had ever seen each other before?”

The vicar revolved where he sat, looking his wife suddenly in the face, while a light broke over his own.

“Now you speak of it,” he cried, “they did!  It didn’t strike me at the time.  I was rather surprised at her being so nervous, but that never occurred to me as the explanation.  Yet now I have no doubt about it.  You don’t mean to say he knows something against Mrs. Steel, and has been giving her away?”

“No, dear, the judge has not; but you were not the only one who saw the meeting; and other eyes are more suspicious than yours, Hugh.  Darling, you would not think the worse of Rachel for keeping her past life to herself, would you, especially if it had been a very unhappy one?”

“Of course not; it is no business of ours.”

“So you told Mrs. Venables the day she came to tell us Mr. Steel was married, and so I told her again this afternoon.  However, that is not her main point, and there is another thing I am still surer you would never do.  If a person had been put upon her trial, and found not guilty in open court, you would not treat her as though she had been found guilty, would you—­even though the verdict had come as a surprise?”