"Flaxman? You thought yourself justified?"
"It was surely better to take so difficult a matter to a friend of yours, rather than to an enemy."
Meynell smiled—but not agreeably.
"Any one else?"
"I have heard this morning on my way here that Miss Nairn has received a copy."
"Miss Nairn? That means the village."
"She is a gossipping woman," said Barron.
Meynell pondered. He got up and began to pace the room—coming presently to an abrupt pause in front of his visitor.
"This story then is now all over the village—will soon be all over the diocese. Now—what was your object in yourself bringing it to me?"
"I thought it right to inform you—to give you warning—perhaps also to suggest to you that a retreat from your present position—"