"Alas!" he thought, "she was able to find the right weapon with which to wound me."
Meantime Katharine and Alan were waiting for him. The boy had thrown himself down on the ground, and seemed lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly he said to her:
"How did you know it was her voice? You have never seen her—have you?"
"Yes," Katharine answered. "I have seen her once before, Alan, when she said cruel and slanderous things against your father. Every one was shocked. No one believed."
"No one believed," Alan repeated to himself.
"No one could believe such things of a man like your father," Katharine answered without looking at him. "Even I, a stranger to him, knew they must be untrue. I thought to myself at the time what a curse it must be to be born with a tongue and a mind like Mrs Stanhope's. Much better to be a sweet old saeter-woman like the old woman up there."
"What was it she said about father?" the boy asked with painful eagerness.
"I think you know," Katharine replied gently.
And just then Clifford came towards them. Alan got up and ran to meet him.
"Father," he cried, "I want to tell you everything she said to me. I've tried dozens of times, but——"