"Emma. At this hour the day before yesterday she was as good a girl as any in the village. She was good, and dutiful, and honest. Now what is she and where is she?"
"Has she—isn't she in her home?"
"She never went home."
"Then she did lose the money?"
"Lose it? She has stolen it. Do you not see you have deliberately made a thief out of an honest girl?"
Priscilla gazed in dismay at the avenging vicar's wife. It was true then, and she had the fatal gift of spoiling all she touched.
"And worse than that—you have brought a good girl to ruin. He'll never marry her now."
"He?"
"Do you not know the person she was engaged to has gone with her?"
"I don't know anything."