To save Phyl’s reputation, Miss Pinckney would have perjured herself twice over.
Miss Pinckney had many faults and limitations, but she had the grand common sense of a clean heart and a clear mind. She could tell a lie with a good conscience in a good cause, but to hide even a small fault of her own, the threat of death on the scaffold would not have made her tell a lie.
She went to the writing table now and taking a sheet of paper, wrote:
Dear Richard,
Seth Grangerson is bad again, and I am going over there now with Phyl. We mayn’t be back to-night. I am taking the automobile. We will be back to-morrow most likely.
Your affectionate Aunt,
Maria Pinckney.
She read the note over. If all went well then everything would be well. If the worst occurred then she could explain everything to Richard.
It was a desperate gamble; well she knew how the dice were loaded against her, but the game had to be played out to the very last moment.
Already she had stopped the mouth of slander by her prompt action with Colonel Grangerson’s coloured man, but she well knew how coloured servants talk; Grangerson’s man was safe enough, he was frightened and he would have to get back to Grangerville. Rachel was absolutely safe, Dinah alone was doubtful.