"Really, Miss Caroline has a fairly abrupt way with her when it suits her," he said. "If we hadn't been indebted to her for the loan of the car, I should certainly have insisted that Mollie come with us. We live nearly opposite, and the Pemberton's car will have to go out of the way to take her home. Mollie ought to have had the sense to see it herself, and the pluck to take matters into her own hands. She is allowing herself to be led away by all the notice she is receiving. I have yet to learn exactly how it was that she came to be here to-night. There's something I don't understand, and I don't quite like it."
"Oh, I can tell you all about that, Albert dear," said Mrs. Mercer eagerly. "I've been longing to tell you, and you'll be so pleased. It was Bertie Pemberton. He has taken an immense fancy to Mollie, and it was he who insisted that she should be sent for with the Grafton girls. Kate told me so herself, and they like her so much, and they are going to make Mrs. Pemberton call on Mrs. Walter, and have Mollie over there often. Just fancy, if anything should come of it!"
"Well, I never!" said the Vicar in his coldest tones.
Mrs. Mercer felt the drop in the temperature. "But it would be such a splendid thing for Mollie, dear," she pleaded, "and she does so come out in company. I thought she looked quite as pretty as the Grafton girls to-night, and I was quite proud of her, the way she behaved, enjoying herself, but never pushing herself forward, and everybody liking her and all."
"If you've quite finished, Gertrude," said the Vicar, as coldly as before, "I should like to say something. I'd no idea—no idea whatever—that it was on that young man's invitation that Mollie was there to-night and——"
"Oh, but it wasn't, dear. It was Nora who wrote to her. Of course he wouldn't have done it."
"Let me finish, please. Here is a young girl living, with her mother, almost under our protection. Whatever friends they have made here they have made through us. I was glad enough for Mollie to be taken up by the Graftons, although she does not belong to their class by birth, and there is some danger of her thinking herself their equal in a way which they may perhaps come not to like, if she pushes it too far. That is why I wished her not to go to the Abbey too much, unless I, or you, were with her. I feel a responsibility towards the girl."
"But, Albert dear, surely it has got past that now! She's their friend just as much as we are. And they love having her there."
"Please let me finish, Gertrude. I know she's their friend, and now see what it has led to! By your own showing, Mrs. Pemberton doesn't even know Mrs. Walter. She is only going to call on her, because her daughter is going to make her. Yet, on the invitation of a young man, who has taken a fancy to her,—well, on his sister's invitation then, if you must be so particular, which she, this time, is made to give,—Mollie can so far forget herself as to go to the house of perfect strangers and be entertained by them. Why, it's lending herself to—to— I'd really rather not say what. To me it seems perfectly outrageous. Have you, I should like to ask, really looked upon Mollie in the light of a girl that any young man can throw down his glove to, and she'll pick it up?"
"Oh, no, Albert dear," expostulated Mrs. Mercer, greatly distressed by the suggestion. "It isn't like that at all. She isn't like that, and I'm sure he isn't like that either. I was watching him at dinner, and afterwards, and I believe he really is in——"