"I think it would be possible—I think it would be just—if Miss Puttenham were to empower you to go to your Bishop. He too has rights!" said Catharine, her clear skin reddening.
Meynell paused: then spoke with hesitation.
"Yes—that I possibly might do—if you permit me?" He turned again to
Alice.
"Go to him—go to him at once!" she said with a sob she could not repress.
Another silence. Then Meynell walked to the window and looked at the weather.
"It is not raining so fast," he said in his cheerful voice. "Oughtn't you to be going home—getting ready and arranging with Hester? It's an awful business going abroad."
Alice rose silently. Catharine went into the kitchen to fetch the waterproof which had been drying.
Alice and Meynell were left alone.
She looked up.
"It is so hard to be hated!" she said passionately—"to see you hated. It seems to burn one's heart—the coarse and horrible things that are being said—"