“Yes?”
“Don’t set me down as a busybody. I think I have a duty to you as a friend. It is a matter of justice.”
The Canon’s virtues were of the practical, workman-like order. He was not an eloquent man in the oratorical sense, having far too straightforward and sincere a personality to wax hysterical for the benefit of a church full of women. But he was a man who was listened to by men.
Murchison turned half-restlessly in his chair.
“With reference to the old scandal?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Something unpleasant, of course.”
“Things that are put about behind one’s back are generally unpleasant. It was my wife who discovered the report. Women hear more lies than we do, you know.”
“As a rule.”
“I decided that it was only fair that you should know, since slandered people are generally the last to hear of their own invented sins.”