e; "but I almost wish Walter
Hartright had stayed here long enough to be present at the explanation,
and to hear the proposal to me to write this note."

I was a little surprised--perhaps a little piqued also--by these last
words.

"Events, it is true, connected Mr. Hartright very remarkably with the
affair of the letter," I said; "and I readily admit that he conducted
himself, all things considered, with great delicacy and discretion.
But I am quite at a loss to understand what useful influence his
presence could have exercised in relation to the effect of Sir
Percival's statement on your mind or mine."

"It was only a fancy," she said absently. "There is no need to discuss
it, Mr. Gilmore. Your experience ought to be, and is, the best guide I
can desire."

I did not altogether like her thrusting the whole responsibility, in
this marked manner, on my shoulders. If Mr. Fairlie had done it, I
should not have been surprised. But resolute, clear-minded Miss
Halcombe was the very last person in the world whom I should have
expected to find shrinking from the expression of an opinion of her own.

"If any doubts still trouble you," I said, "why not mention them to me
at once? Tell me plainly, have you any reason to distrust Sir Percival
Glyde?"

"None whatever."

"Do you see anything improbable, or contradictory, in his explanation?"

"How can I say I do, after the proof he has offered me of the truth of
it? Can there be better testimony in his favour, Mr. Gilmore, than the
testimony of the woman's mother?"

"None better. If the answer to your note of inquiry proves to be
satisfactory, I for one cannot see what more any friend of Sir
Percival's can possibly expect from him."

"Then we will post the note," she said, rising to leave the room, "and
dismiss all further reference to the subject until the answer arrives.
Don't attach any weight to my hesitation. I can give no better reason
for it than that I have been over-anxious about Laura lately--and
anxiety, Mr. Gilmore, unsettles the strongest of us."

She left me abruptly, her naturally firm voice faltering as she spoke
those last words. A sensitive, vehement, passionate nature--a woman
of ten thousand in these trivial, superficial times. I had known her
from her earliest years--I had seen her tested, as she grew up, in more
than one trying family crisis, and my long experience made me attach an
importance to her hesitation under the circumstances here