s. Quarrier had overtaxed her strength, and it's
just possible--I say its just possible--that her husband was not very
prudent in sending her for necessary repose to the house of a woman so
active-minded and so excitable as Mrs. Wade We must remember the
peculiar state of her health. As far as _I_ am concerned, Dr. Jenkins's
evidence is final, and entirely satisfactory. As for the dirty
calumnies of dirty-minded reactionists, _I_ am not the man to give ear
to them!"

One man there was who might have been expected to credit such charges,
yet surprised his acquaintances by what seemed an unwonted exercise of
charity. Mr. Scatchard Vialls, hitherto active in defamation of
Quarrier, with amiable inconsistency refused to believe him guilty of
conduct which had driven his wife to suicide. It was some days before
the rumour reached his ears. Since the passage of arms with Serena, he
had held aloof from Mrs. Mumbray's drawing-room, and his personality
did not invite the confidence of ordinary scandal-mongers. When at
length his curate hinted to him what was being said, he had so clearly
formulated his own theory of Mrs. Quarrier's death that only the
strongest evidence would have led him to reconsider it. Obstinacy and
intellectual conceit forbade him to indulge his disposition to paint an
enemy's character in the darkest colours.

"No, Mr. Blenkinsop," he replied to the submissive curate, standing on
his hearth-rug at full height and regarding the cornice as his habit
was when he began to monologize--"no, I find it impossible to entertain
such an accusation. I have little reason to think well of Mr. Quarrier;
he is intemperate, in many senses of the word, and intemperance, it is
true, connects closely with the most odious crimes. But in this case
censure has been too quick to interpret suspicious
circumstances--suspicious, I admit. Far be it from me to speak in
defence of such a person as Mrs. Wade; I think she is a source of
incalculable harm to all who are on friendly terms with her--especially
young and impressionable women; but you must trust my judgment in this
instance: I am convinced she is not guilty. Her agitation in the
coroner's court has no special significance. No; the solution of the
mystery is not so simple; it involves wider issues--calls for a more
profound interpretation of character and motives. Mrs. Quarrier--pray
attend to this, Mr. Blenkinsop--represents a type of woman becoming, I
have reason to think,