As soon as luncheon was over the vicar set out for Dr. Joliffe’s. He was a man of strong, imperious will, and in this sudden flux of events he felt called to exercise it to the full. Had he done right? In spite of a limited horizon, in spite of a fixed determination not to allow himself a doubt in the matter, he was unable to prevent a sinister little demon leaping into his brain as he crossed the village green, and saw on the one hand a deserted pile of stone, on the other the lowered blinds of the widow’s cottage.
It was futile to ask the question now. He could not call the dead to life. Nor could he revoke the processes of the law. John Smith was under lock and key at Wellwood Asylum for the good of the state. Armed with the opinion of Dr. Parker and Dr. Murfin, a Welbeck Street specialist, it had not been a difficult matter to convince the county bench that the realm would be the safer for a measure so drastic. But was it? All the vicar’s power of will was needed to allay the horrid demon voice. In fact he had not quite succeeded by the time he entered Dr. Joliffe’s gate.
As was to be expected, Joliffe had scant consolation to offer. “Tu l’as voulu, Georges Dandin,” was his attitude. The vicar had shown himself an obstinate, narrow man, and even if absolute sincerity and transparent honesty formed his excuse, somehow it was not an easy one to accept.
“Pity you didn’t take advice,” Joliffe ventured to remark.
“I don’t reproach myself,” said the vicar stiffly. “It had to be done. The public interest called for it. But I wish that old woman could have been spared the shock. Every precaution was taken, the removal was most carefully planned, the whole thing went without a hitch. I can’t think how the news got out.”
Dr. Joliffe confessed that he was equally at a loss. He had questioned Mrs. Bent closely upon the matter, and she had declared that John’s mother had said that God had told her something terrible was going to happen to her son. He had told her also that they were about to be parted, and that she would never see him again in her present life.
“An amazing prepossession,” said the vicar.
Dr. Joliffe was inclined to consider it a remarkable piece of clairvoyance.
“I was not aware that she laid claim to powers of that kind,” said the vicar.
“Nor I,” said the doctor. “Of course she was always an unusual sort of woman, and deeply religious.”