"That he was unhappy, and has doubts or troubles of some kind. I didn't understand what exactly, but she knows that he will give it all up—the vows and all that, I mean—if——"
"If what?"
Adela was not really wanting in courage.
"If a certain very rich woman would marry him. It seems such a come-down, so very dull and dreadful, doesn't it?"
"You know all that's a lie!"
"Well, it was all told to me."
"But you knew there was not a word of truth in it, only you wanted to see how I would take it. And I thought you were a kind-hearted woman! How blind I am!"
Adela was galled to the quick. A quarrel, a scolding, would have been tolerable, and perhaps exciting, but this naïve disappointment in herself, this judgment from the man to whom she had been so good, was too much!
"I thought it was much more kind to let you know what everybody is saying, that you might help him. I am very sorry I have made a mistake, and that I must be going now. It is much later than I thought."
"Must you?" There was the faintest sarcasm in the very polite tone of the Canon's voice.