"I want you to tell me all you know and have heard about Ananda. Sit down, Mrs. Hulver," he said, giving her a chair. "I don't see why you should stand. Let us have a comfortable chat whilst we are about it."
He noted the cloud of anxiety that seemed to overshadow her usually placid face and put it down to trouble over her son. Her words confirmed his suspicion.
"To tell you the truth, sir, I have had no time to consider Mr. Ananda. I have been so worried by young William's conduct."
"You mustn't think too much about it. You can't expect everybody to be a saint."
"I don't, sir, and least of all young William from the way he has begun——"
"What did you hear of Ananda in the bazaar?" asked Alderbury interrupting her.
"As far as I can recollect the family ill-treated him, knocked him about with a stick and he ran away. They didn't like his turning Christian. As William—that was my third—used to say: 'What women haven't got to answer for, you may safely put down to religion.'"
"It was supposed that he was in hiding somewhere on the college premises. It seems the gardener heard of the arrival of your son and thought it was Ananda."
"The gardener?" said Mrs. Hulver puckering her brow. "So we may thank him for that budmash's visit. I shall have to remember that."
She thought of the roses and felt that the man had got even with her after all; but she kept her thoughts to herself.