He ceased on a bitter tone, then, before his companion could reply, added violently:
‘It is hideous to see her name in such places!’
‘Let us speak freely of this,’ returned Mr. Wyvern. ‘You seem to me to be very unjust. Your personal feeling makes you less acute in judging than I should have expected. Surely her behaviour is very admirable.’
‘Oh, I am not unjust in that sense. I have never refused to believe in his innocence technically.’
‘Excuse me, that has nothing to do with the matter. All we have to look at is this. She is herself convinced of his innocence, and therefore makes it her supreme duty to defend his memory. It appears to me that she acts altogether nobly. In spite of all the evidence that was brought on his side, the dastardly spirit of politics has persisted in making Mutimer a sort of historical character, a type of the hypocritical demagogue, to be cited whenever occasion offers. Would it be possible to attach a more evil significance to a man’s name than that which Mutimer bears, and will continue to bear, among certain sections of writing and speechifying vermin? It is a miserable destiny. If every man who achieves notoriety paid for his faults in this way, what sort of reputations would history consist of? I won’t say that it isn’t a good thing, speaking generally, but in the individual case it is terribly hard. Would you have his widow keep silence? That would be the easier thing to do, be sure of it—for her, a thousand times the easier. I regard her as the one entirely noble woman it has been my lot to know. And if you thought calmly you could not speak of her with such impatience.’
Hubert kept silence for a moment.
‘It is all true. Of course it only means that I am savagely jealous. But I cannot—upon my life I cannot—understand her having given her love to such a man as that!’
Mr. Wyvern seemed to regard the landscape. There was a sad smile on his countenance.
‘Let there be an end of it,’ Hubert resumed. ‘I didn’t mean to say anything to you about the letter. Now, we’ll talk of other things. Well, I am going to have a summer among the German galleries; perhaps I shall find peace there. You have let your son know that I am coming?’
The vicar nodded. They continued their walk along the top of the hill. Presently Mr. Wyvern stopped and faced his companion.