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Page 95
"Got something to do with those other matters, you know," he
remarked. "I say! What's Ransford doing about all that?"
"About all what, Mr. Folliot?" asked Mary, at once on her
guard. "I don't understand you."
"You know--all that suspicion--and so on," said Folliot. "Bad
position for a professional man, you know--ought to clear
himself. Anybody been applying for that reward Ransford
offered?"
"I don't know anything about it," replied Mary. "Dr. Ransford
is very well able to take care of himself, I think. Has
anybody applied for yours?"
Folliot rose from his chair again, as if he had changed his
mind about lingering, and shook his head.
"Can't say what my solicitors may or may not have heard--or
done," he answered. "But--queer business, you know--and ought
to be settled. Bad for Ransford to have any sort of a cloud
over him. Sorry to see it."
"Is that why you came forward with a reward?" asked Mary.
But to this direct question Folliot made no answer. Ile
muttered something about the advisability of somebody doing
something and went away, to Mary's relief. She had no desire
to discuss the Paradise mysteries with anybody, especially
after Ransford's assurance of the previous evening. But in
the middle of the afternoon in walked Mrs. Folliot, a rare
caller, and before she had been closeted with Mary five
minutes brought up the subject again.
"I want to speak to you on a very serious matter, my dear Miss
Bewery," she said. "You must allow me to speak plainly on
account of--of several things. My--my superiority in--in age,
you know, and all that!"
"What's the matter, Mrs. Folliot?" asked Mary, steeling
herself against what she felt sure was coming. "Is it--very
serious? And--pardon me--is it about what Mr. Folliot
mentioned to me this morning? Because if it is, I'm not going
to discuss that with you or with anybody!"
"I had no idea that my husband had been here this morning,"
answered Mrs. Folliot in genuine surprise. "What did he want
to talk about?"
"In that case, what do you want to talk about?" asked Mary.
"Though that doesn't mean that I'm going to talk about it with
you."
Mrs. Folliot made an effort to understand this remark, and
after inspecting her hostess critically for a moment,
proceeded in her most judicial manner.
"You must see, my dear Miss Bewery, that it is highly
necessary that some one should use the utmost persuasion on
Dr. Ransford," she said. "He is placing all of you--himself,
yourself, your young brother--in most invidious positions by
his silence! In society such as--well, such as you get in a
cathedral town, you know, no man of reputation can afford to
keep silence when his--his character is affected."
Mary picked up some needlework and began to be much occupied
with it.
"Is Dr. Ransford's character affected?" she asked. "I wasn't
aware of it, Mrs. Folliot."
"Oh, my dear, you can't be quite so very--so very, shall we
say ingenuous?--as all that!" exclaimed Mrs. Folliot. "These
rumours!--of course, they are very wicked and cruel ones, but
you know they have spread. Dear me!--why, they have been
common talk!"
"I don't think my guardian cares twopence for common talk,
Mrs. Folliot," answered Mary. "And I am quite sure I don't."
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