‘I knew,’ said she through sobs and tears, ’that Roger had taken a fancy to Cynthia; any one might see that; and as long as Roger was only a younger son, with no profession, and nothing but his Fellowship, I thought it right to discourage him, as any one would who had a grain of common sense in them; for a clumsier, more common, awkward, stupid fellow I never saw—­to be called county, I mean.’

’Take care; you’ll have to eat your words presently when you come to fancy he’ll have Hamley some day.’

‘No, I shan’t,’ said she, not perceiving his exact drift.  ’You are vexed now because it is not Molly he’s in love with; and I call it very unjust and unfair to my poor fatherless girl.  I am sure I have always tried to further Molly’s interests as if she was my own daughter.’

Mr. Gibson was too indifferent to this accusation to take any notice of it.  He returned to what was of far more importance to him.

’The point I want to be clear about is this.  Did you or did you not alter your behaviour to Roger in consequence of what you overheard of my professional conversation with Dr Nicholls?  Have you not favoured his suit to Cynthia since then, on the understanding gathered from that conversation that he stood a good chance of inheriting Hamley?’

‘I suppose I did,’ said she, sulkily.  ’And if I did, I can’t see any harm in it, that I should be questioned as if I were in a witness-box.  He was in love with Cynthia long before that conversation, and she liked him so much.  It was not for me to cross the path of true love.  I don’t see how you would have a mother love her child if she may not turn accidental circumstances to her advantage.  Perhaps Cynthia might have died if she had been crossed in love; her poor father was consumptive.’

’Don’t you know that all professional conversations are confidential?  That it would be the most dishonourable thing possible for me to betray secrets which I learn in the exercise of my profession?’

‘Yes, of course, you.’

’Well! and are not you and I one in all these respects?  You cannot do a dishonourable act without my being inculpated in the disgrace.  If it would be a deep disgrace for me to betray a professional secret, what would it be for me to trade on that knowledge?’

He was trying hard to be patient; but the offence was of that class which galled him insupportably.

’I don’t know what you mean by trading.  Trading in a daughter’s affections is the last thing I should do; and I should have thought you would be rather glad than otherwise to get Cynthia well married, and off your hands.’

Mr. Gibson got up, and walked about the room, his hands in his pockets.  Once or twice he began to speak, but he stopped impatiently short without going on.

‘I don’t know what to say to you,’ he said at length.  ’You either can’t or won’t see what I mean.  I am glad enough to have Cynthia here.  I have given her a true welcome, and I sincerely hope she will find this house as much a home as my own daughter does.  But for the future I must look out of my doors, and double-lock the approaches if I am so foolish as to—–­However, that’s past and gone; and it remains with me to prevent its recurrence as far as I can for the future.  Now let us hear the present state of affairs.’