‘Yes, I shall cut short my leave by a month or six weeks.’
‘Dear Kenrick, why not stop with us till you recover your spirits after this cruel blow?’ urged Mrs. Dulcimer.
‘My kindest of friends, I could never recover my spirits at Little Yafford. Forgive me for saying so, but the place has become hateful to me. Even your kindness could not make it endurable.’
‘Kenrick is right,’ said the Vicar. ‘He has been very badly treated, and his profession will be his best consolation.’
‘There is one thing that must be settled before I go back to India,’ said Kenrick. ‘I must give—Miss Harefield—back her money. I cannot carry that burden away with me. You are her guardian and one of her trustees, Vicar. You and Mr. Scratchell must manage the business between you. I can only raise the money by a new mortgage. Would it not be best for Miss Harefield’s trustees to take a mortgage on my estate for the amount they have advanced? I paid the other people only four per cent. I might pay her five.’
‘I do not think she will take a mortgage. I do not believe she will take her money back in any form whatsoever,’ said the Vicar. ‘She has written me a letter, which I shall show you when you are calmer and more disposed to forgiveness. It is a very touching letter, full of truth and generous feeling. She has treated you very badly—she has been foolish, mistaken; but she is a noble girl, and she is much to be pitied. You will be ungenerous if you insist on giving her back the money. She has more than enough without it.’
‘I shall be a mean hound if I keep it,’ said Kenrick.
CHAPTER X.
MRS. PIPER’S DAY.
‘I am not surprised,’ said Miss Coyle, when she was informed that Beatrix Harefield had gone away, and there was to be no wedding. ‘That unhappy young woman’s guilty conscience has driven her away. A just punishment for Sir Kenrick. Of course he was going to marry her for her money. He knows, as well as I do, that she poisoned her father.’