“My dear, it would take a good deal to make me uneasy about anything I heard in that voice.”
“And if he lives, she is to have the charge of him,” added Rachel.
“That is another matter on which I would suspend my fears,” said Mr. Clare. “Come out, and take a turn in the peacock path. You want air more than rest. So you have been talked to death.”
“And I am afraid she is gone to talk Alick to death! I wonder when Alick will come home,” she proceeded, as they entered on the path. “She says Colonel Keith had a telegram about the result of the trial, but she does not know what it was, nor indeed who was tried.”
“Alick will not keep you in doubt longer than he can help,” said Mr. Clare.
“You know all about it;” said Rachel. “The facts every one must know, but I mean that which led to them.”
“Alick told me you had suffered very much.”
“I don’t know whether it is a right question, but if it is, I should much like to know what Alick did say. I begged him to tell you all, or it would not have been fair towards you to bring me here.”
“He told me that he knew you had been blind and wilful, but that your confidence had been cruelly abused, and you had been most unselfish throughout.”
“I did not mean so much what I had done as what I am—what I was.”