"By them, or persons employed by them. I suppose so."
She drew a little nearer, lifting an earnest face to meet my gaze.
"Candidly, now," she said, "as if I were not Miss Manvers, but a man to be trusted. Do you think it impossible that Dr. Bethel has done this thing? Viewed from a scientific and practical standpoint, does such a deed appear to you to be the horrible thing some seem to think it?"
What spirit prompted my answer? I never knew just what impelled me, but I looked down into the pretty, upturned face, looked straight into the dark, liquid eyes, and answered:
"Candidly, Miss Manvers—as you are certainly as much to be trusted as if you were a man—when I went to Bethel's defense, I went supposing that, for the benefit of science and the possible good of his fellow-beings, he had exhumed the body."
She drew a short, quick breath.
"And you have changed your opinion?" she half asserted, half inquired.
I laid the fingers of my gloved left hand lightly upon hers, as it rested on my arm, and bent lower toward the glowing brunette face as I answered: