"Who do you suppose would lie about it?" Mary said.
"Essy would."
"Well—I may tell you, Ally, that you're wrong. Essy's kept your secret. So has Mrs. Gale. You ought to go down on your knees and thank the poor girl—after what you did to her."
"It was Essy. I know. She's mad to marry him herself, so she goes lying about me."
"Nobody's lying about her," said the Vicar, "but herself. And she's condemning herself with every word she says. You'd better have left Essy out of it, my girl."
"I tell you that she's lying if she says she's seen me with him. She's never seen me."
"It wasn't Essy who saw you," Mary said.
"Somebody else is lying then. Who was it?"
"If you must know who saw you," the Vicar said, "it was Dr. Harker. You were seen a month ago hanging about Upthorne alone with that fellow."
"Only once," Ally murmured.