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It need hardly be said of him that the most of his time he spent with Mary; but he did manage to devote an hour or two to his old friend, the school-assistant. Mr. Peacocke told his whole story, and Carstairs, whose morals were perhaps not quite so strict as those of Mr. Puddicombe, gave him all his sympathy.
He had not even hinted it to his wife, from whom it might probably make its way to Mrs. Peacocke. He had suggested it to Mr. Puddicombe, asking whether there might not be a way out of all their difficulties. Mr. Puddicombe had declared that there could be no such way as far as the school was concerned.
Why should you expect him to sympathise with your wrong-doing?" "What have I done wrong?" "You have countenanced immorality and deceit in a brother clergyman." "I deny it," said the Doctor, rising up impetuously from his chair. "Then I do not understand the position, Dr. Wortle. That is all I can say." "To my thinking, Mr. Puddicombe, I never came across a better man than Mr. Peacocke in my life."
"You are too late for chapel," she said severely. "I was afraid I would be," was the reply. "This must not occur again. Do you know that Mr. Randolph is to marry Miss Puddicombe?" "I heard so," she smiled. "The wedding-day is set!" "So I was told." "Did he tell you?" "Oh, no! I heard it a good while ago." Miss Sniffen looked a little disappointed and turned down the hall.
"Yes," she said, "he can come and see you at the hotel on the evening before, and again in the morning, so that if there be a word to say you can say it. Then when it is over he will bring you down here. The Doctor and Mr. Puddicombe will come down by a later train. Of course it is painful," said Mrs. Wortle, "but you must bear up."
"Oh, it's only a team!" was the disappointed contradiction. "I saw the dust and thought they were coming." The buggy whirled up, the driver lifted his hat with a smiling bow and was gone. "Mr. Randolph and Miss Puddicombe!" commented Miss Castlevaine. "Who was he bowing to? Not me!" "I have met him," responded Mrs. Albright. "Oh! Maybe it was you, then. But he was looking at Miss Sterling!"
Wortle himself, have been guilty of similar deceit had it fallen upon him to have to defend a woman who had been true and affectionate to him? Mr. Puddicombe would have left the woman to break her heart and have gone away and done his duty like a Christian, feeling no tugging at his heart-strings. It was so that our Doctor spoke to himself of his counsellor, sitting there alone in his library.
He could see at a glance that it was a copy of the 'Broughton Gazette, and could see also the length and outward show of the very article which he had been discussing with Mr. Puddicombe. "Dr. Wortle," she said, "if you don't mind, I will go away from this." "But I do mind. Why should you go away?" "They have been writing about me in the newspapers." "That was to be expected."
"And she probably knows he is engaged to Blanche Puddicombe!" "That is what stumps me!" exclaimed David. "Such a girl!" "They say she has a fortune in her own name," put in Mrs. Dudley. "Fortune!" scorned the boy. "I wouldn't marry her if she would give me a hundred million!" Mrs. Dudley laughed. "She'd be better than Miss Sniffen," said Polly.
Could Mr. Puddicombe come himself and see him on the Sunday afternoon? This note he sent away by a messenger, who came back with a reply, saying that Mr. Puddicombe would himself preach in the afternoon, and would afterwards call in at the rectory. For an hour or two before his dinner, the Doctor went out on horseback, and roamed about among the lanes, endeavouring to make up his mind.
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