"You never asked me about my adventures, or I should have. They were not very discreditable after all."
"Well, anyhow," I said, "Tiel has deceived me grossly, and I am going to wring an explanation out of him!"
She laid her hand beseechingly on my arm.
"Don't quarrel with him!" she said earnestly. "It will do no good. We may think what we like of some of the things he does, but we have got to trust him!"
"Trust him! But how can I? He told me he preached last Sunday,—I find it was a lie. He said nobody in the parish suspected anything,—in consequence of his not preaching, I find they are all 'talking.' He mismanaged your coming here so badly that if old Craigie weren't next door to an imbecile we should all have been arrested days ago. How can I trust him now?"
"Say nothing to him now," she said in a low voice. "Wait till to-morrow! I think he will tell you then very frankly."
There was something so significant and yet beseeching in her voice that I consented, though not very graciously.
"I can hardly picture Herr Tiel being very 'frank'!" I replied. "But if you ask me——"
I bowed my obedience, and then catching up her hand pressed it to my lips, saying—
"I trust you absolutely!"