member of the Corporation, he
had taken hold of the financial affairs of the borough when they were in
a bad way and had put them in a safe and prosperous footing; he had
worked, thought, and planned for the benefit of the place--and this was
his reward! For he knew that those taunts, those looks, those
half-averted, half-sneering faces meant one thing, and one thing
only--the Highmarket men believed him equally guilty with Mallalieu, and
had come to the conclusion that he was only let off in order that direct
evidence against Mallalieu might be forthcoming. He cursed them deeply
and bitterly--and sneered at them in the same breath, knowing that even
as they were weathercocks, veering this way and that at the least breath
of public opinion, so they were also utter fools, wholly unable to see
or to conjecture.

The excitement that had seized upon Cotherstone in face of that public
taunting of him died away in the silence of his own house--when Lettie
and Bent returned home in the course of the afternoon they found him
unusually cool and collected. Bent had come with uneasy feelings and
apprehensions; one of the men who had been at the Highmarket Arms had
chanced to be in the station when he and Lettie arrived, and had drawn
him aside and told him of what had occurred, and that Cotherstone was
evidently going on the drink. But there were no signs of anything
unusual about Cotherstone when Bent found him. He said little about the
events of the morning to either Bent or Lettie; he merely remarked that
things had turned out just as he had expected and that now perhaps they
would get matters settled; he had tea with them; he was busy with his
books and papers in his own room until supper-time; he showed no signs
of anything unusual at supper, and when an hour later he left the house,
saying that he must go down to the office and fetch the accumulated
correspondence, his manner was so ordinary that Bent saw no reason why
he should accompany him.

But Cotherstone had no intention of going to his office. He left his
house with a fixed determination. He would know once and for all what
Highmarket felt towards and about him. He was not the man to live under
suspicion and averted looks, and if he was to be treated as a suspect
and a pariah he would know at once.

There was at that time in Highmarket a small and select club, having its
house in the Market Place, to which all the principal townsmen belonged.
Both Mallalieu and Co