Thus the meeting had but small direct result. Its effect indirectly, however, was considerable. When, early that evening, the members had stolen down the lane near the minister's cottage, to intercept each other and feel circuitously towards the point of interest, each would have been ashamed, first and unsupported, to repeat aloud the rumours that had reached him. When he had heard them in the first instance, usually from his wife--it is the gentle sex usually which originates or introduces such tales, probably because it has no head to break, which is to say, that its corporal immunities in a civilized land enable it to say unpunished what would bring down on the male tattler both brawls and broken bones,--he had at first declared it was impossible, and then that it was unlikely; and even when, after dwelling on it in his mind, the love of a sensation made him half think half hope there might be something in it, he would hesitate to allude to it save by a whisper and a shake of the head, and would caution his wife not to repeat it, or let herself appear as one who was giving it currency. When, however, the matter had been talked over, audible speech exercised its usual defining and contracting influence. The mysterious and appalling, as well as the doubtful element, became vulgarised as well as realized. Without any additional evidence, yet in the company of so many others who all believed, each felt it due to his own character for clear-sightedness and high moral tone to dismiss every remnant of doubt, and to be eager for the exposure and punishment of the offender. Afterwards, in the presence of the accused himself, their certainty had begun a little to waver. The many pieties and goodnesses associated with him in their memories, were too discordant with this new and vulgar suspicion, and probably had they met him each alone, they would have dismissed the accusation from their minds; but each sat under the scrutinizing eyes of his twelve or thirteen fellows. They were the eyes into which he had looked, a little while ago, when he had made up his mind that the rumours were well founded; and as he felt their glance on him now, it was like a voice urging steadfastness and consistency with what he had been saying so shortly before. Those persons looking at him had heard him say that he believed everything; how, then, could he, while still under their eye, turn round and dismiss his suspicions without any new fact or argument to account for the change? Nevertheless, the zeal of the old Hebrew prophets, which some of them had felt stirring in their veins and urging them to lift a testimony and denounce the sinner in the midst of his ways, had cooled and oozed away as they sat round the sickbed; each looked expectantly to the others, but felt he could not undertake the work himself. It was a relief to all of them to leave the sick-room, and when they re-assembled at the Post Office, they felt more strongly built up in their suspicions than ever. If anything could have bound them more firmly to their position, it was Mr. Sangster's scant respect for the conclusion at which they had arrived. They were willing to admit his superiority both in position and education, and probably any one of them would have deferred to him if alone; but the sturdy democratic or Presbyterian element in them objected to so many yielding to the one who wore a better coat and had learned Latin; and when in the end he tried to dismiss the meeting, after pooh-poohing its object as absurd, they felt bound to assert themselves by boldly and openly taking the other course.
All reserve, therefore, was dropped. Each had all the others to bear him out in whatever he said; and that night he openly discussed the supposed facts with his wife while she prepared his supper.
The next morning the 'stoups' stood empty at the well, and heaps of wet linen lay neglected and unspread down on the 'loaning,' while their owners in garrulous knots discussed the minister's misdoings, and Peter Malloch sold more little parcels of tea and snuff than he had ever done in one day before, so many of the gudewives desired to get his version with full particulars.
CHAPTER XXIII.
[MOTHER AND DAUGHTER].
Sophia looked from behind her window-blind as Mr. Wallowby drove away to make his visit at Inchbracken.
'A fine looking man!' observed her mother, who stood behind her. 'This cold of yours is very disappointing, Sophia, confining you to your room. I was in hopes you and he would have become quite intimate by this time. He seems a very superior person, and would have been an improving companion for you. Your cold appears to be better to-day. Put on your blue silk, and let him find you in the drawing room on his return. You owe to your brother, my dear, that his friend should find things as comfortable and pleasant here as among our neighbours.'
'Certainly, mamma, if you say so. But I don't think it will signify much to Mr. Wallowby. He does not mind me in the least, and I find it uphill work trying to make manners to him. Even Mary Brown, who has so much to say, thinks him a tiresome man.'
'She did not appear to think so when she was in his company, laughing and singing and carrying on! I was disappointed to see her father's daughter manifest so much levity of character. I fear it is a family trait.'
'Mamma!'