“I know it well enough,” said Mr. Fane-Smith. “Why, every one in England knows it.”
“If you accept mere hearsay evidence, you may believe anything of any one. Have you ever read any of my father's books?”
“No.”
“Or heard him lecture?”
“No, indeed; I would not hear him on any account.”
“Have you ever spoken with any of his intimate friends?”
“Mr. Raeburn's acquaintances are not likely to mix with any one I should know.”
“Then,” cried Erica, “how can you know anything whatever about him? And how how DARE you say to me, his child, that he is a wicked man?”
“It is a matter of common notoriety.”
“No,” said Erica, “there you are wrong. It is notorious that my father teaches conscientiously teaches much that we regard as error, but people who openly accuse him of evil living find to their cost in the law courts that they have foully libeled him.”