"Good Lord!" said Sir Joseph.
The six elders were standing together, the girls having strayed off in company with Lancelot and Mr. Freshfield.
Mrs. Helston's cheeks were crimson.
"Will you think we ask too much if we beg to be told what she has done?" she inquired, in a voice that shook.
"Our claim to know is a strong one," put in her husband, "as, if Mr. Mayne consents, we should like to undertake the child's education, and give her a home. We hoped that, as you have plenty of daughters, and we have none, you would perhaps spare her to us, who have grown attached to her. But we ought to be in a position to know what tendencies in her to guard against."
"I presume," said the vicar, "that you would rather that we did not speak before Sir Joseph and Lady Burmester."
Her ladyship laid her hand on her husband's arm, and led him away across the grass.
"If I were a girl," she said, "the very sight of Mrs. Cooper would make me wicked. She makes my flesh creep. I wish somebody would take out her ear-rings."
"You are an ungenerous, ill-regulated woman," said Sir Joseph placidly. "I daresay they've had a sweet time of it, trying to break in Harry's precious African filly. He hints at her having had a past already. I expect she's a bit of a fire-brand in a peaceful parsonage."
The four others strolled in an opposite direction. The vicar, with real reluctance, and with brevity, described what he had seen Melicent do.