For the first time in their life together there was the heat of real anger in his voice. Yet she did not seem to hear.
"Yes—that last terrible Gratcher can't hurt me now."
He frowned, with a sulky assumption of that dignity which he felt was demanded of him.
"I don't understand you!"
Still the unseeing eyes played about him, yet she heard at last.
"But he will—he will!" she cried exultingly, and her eyes were wet with an unexplained gladness.
CHAPTER XIX
A Mere Bit of Gossip
The Ministers' Meeting of the following Tuesday was pleasantly enlivened with gossip—retained, of course, within seemly bounds. There was absent the Reverend Dr. Linford, sometime rector of St. Antipas, said lately to have emerged from a state of spiritual chrysalis into a world made new with truths that were yet old. It was concerning this circumstance that discreet expressions were oftenest heard during the function.