“Yes,” answered the squire, “I wish to see you, for I have just heard a tale which, if it be true, will make me bitterly regret that I ever asked you under my roof.”
“And what is it?” asked John Temple, and he drew himself up to his full height.
“It is that you induced the young girl May Churchill to leave her home; that you took her abroad with you, and that she is now living in London, I presume, under your protection, and is called Mrs. John. Now answer, is this true?”
A dark wave of color spread to John Temple’s very brows.
“Who has told you this?” he said, looking steadily at his uncle.
“My wife has just told me,” answered the squire. “It seems she suspected this, and she saw a letter lying on your table bearing a certain address in town. She told young Henderson of this, who it seems is, or was once, a lover of this poor girl’s, and she gave him the address, and this is the letter she has received this morning.”
The squire handed Henderson’s letter to John Temple as he spoke, and John read it through and then laid it down quietly on the writing-table before him.
“A truly honorable transaction altogether, I must say,” he said, scornfully, fixing his gray eyes on Mrs. Temple’s face.
“It is true,” she answered defiantly.