But Mary had her knife ready and she drove it home.
"Ally--Ned Langstaff _saw_ you."
* * * * *
When Rowcliffe came back from Upthorne he found Alice cowering in a
corner of the couch and crying out to her tormentors.
"You brutes--you brutes--if Gwenda was here she wouldn't let you bully
me!"
Mary turned to her husband.
"Steven--will you speak to her? She won't tell us anything. We've been
at it more than half an hour."
Rowcliffe stared at her and the Vicar with strong displeasure.
"I should think you had by the look of her. Why can't you leave the
poor child alone?"
At the sound of his voice, the first voice of compassion that had yet
spoken to her, Alice cried to him.
"Steven! Steven! They've been saying awful things to me. Tell them it
isn't true. Tell them you don't believe it."
"There--there----" His voice stuck in his throat.
He put his hand on her shoulder, standing between her and her father.
"Tell them----" She looked up at him with her piteous eyes.
"She's worried to death," said Rowcliffe. "You might have left it for
to-night at any rate."
"We couldn't, Steven, when you've sent for Greatorex. We _must_ get at
the truth before he comes."
Rowcliffe shrugged his shoulders.
"Have you brought him?" said the Vicar.
"No, I haven't. He's in Morfe. I've sent word for him to come on
here."
Alice looked sharply at him.
"What have you sent for _him_ for? Do you suppose _he'd_ give me
away?"
She began to weep softly.
"All this," said Rowcliffe, "is awfully bad for her."
"You don't seem to consider what it is for us."
Rowcliffe took no notice of the Vicar.
"Look here, Mary--you'd better take her upstairs before he comes. Put
her to bed. Try and get her to sleep."
"Very well. Come, Ally." Mary was gentler now.
Then Ally became wonderful.
She stood up and faced them all.
"I won't go," she said. "I'll stay till he comes if I sit up all
night. How do I know what you're going to do to him? Do you suppose
I'm going to leave him with you? If anybody touches him I'll _kill_
them."
"Ally, dear----"
Mary put her hand gently on her sister's arm to lead her from the
room.
Ally shook off the hand and turned on her in hysteric fury.
"Stop pawing me--you! How dare you touch me after what you've said.
Steven--she says I took Essy's lover from her."
"I didn't, Ally. She doesn't know what she's saying."
"You _did_ say it. She did, Steven. She said I ought to thank Essy for
not splitting on me when I took her lover from her. As if _she_ could
talk when _she_ took Steven from Gwenda."
"Oh--Steven!"
Rowcliffe shook his head at Mary, frowning, as a sign to her not to
mind what Alice said.
"You treat me as if I was dirt, but I'd have died rather than have
done what she did."
"Come, Alice, come. You know you don't mean it," said Rowcliffe,
utterly gentle.
"I do mean it! She sneaked you from behind Gwenda's back and lied to
you to make you think she didn't care for you----"
"Be quiet, you shameful girl!"
"Be quiet yourself, Papa. I'm not as shameful as Molly is. I'm not as
shameful as you are yourself. You killed Mother."
"Oh--my--God----" The words were almost inaudible in the Vicar's
shuddering groan.
He advanced on her to turn her from the room. Ally sank on her sofa as
she saw him come.
Rowcliffe stepped between them.
"For God's sake, sir----"
Ally was struggling in hysterics now, choking between her piteous and
savage cries.
Rowcliffe laid her on the sofa and put a cushion under her head. When
he tried to loosen her gown at her throat she screamed.
"It's all right, Ally, it's all right."
"_Is_ it? _Is_ it?" The Vicar hissed at him.
"It won't be unless you leave her to me. If you go on bullying her
much longer I won't answer for the consequences. You surely don't
want----"
"It's all right, Ally. Lie quiet, there--like that. That's a good
girl. Nobody's going to worry you any more."
He was kneeling by the sofa, pressing his hand to her forehead. Ally
still sobbed convulsively, but she lay quiet. She closed her eyes
under Rowcliffe's soothing hand.
"You might go and see if you can find some salvolatile, Mary," he
said.
Mary went.
The Vicar, who had turned his back on this scene, went, also, into his
study.
Ally still kept her eyes shut.
"Has Mary gone?"
"Yes."
"And Papa?"
"Yes. Lie still."
She lay still.
* * * * *
There was the sound of wheels on the road. It brought Mary and the
Vicar back into the room. The wheels stopped. The gate clanged.
Rowcliffe rose.
"That's Greatorex. I'll go to him."
Ally lay very still now, still as a corpse, with closed eyes.
The house door opened.
Rowcliffe drew back into the room.
"It isn't Greatorex," he said. "It's Gwenda."
"Who sent for her?" said the Vicar.
"I did," said Ally.
She had opened her eyes.
"Thank God for that, anyhow," said Rowcliffe.
Mary and her father looked at each other. Neither of them seemed
to want to go out to Gwenda. It struck Rowcliffe that the Vicar was
afraid.
They waited while Gwenda paid her driver and dismissed him. They could
hear her speaking out there in the passage.
The house door shut and she came to them. She paused in the doorway,
looking at the three who stood facing her, embarrassed and expectant.
She seemed to be thinking that it was odd that they should stand
there. The door, thrown back, hid Alice, who lay behind it on her
sofa.
"Come in, Gwenda," said the Vicar with exaggerated suavity.
She came in and closed the door. Then she saw Alice.
She took the hand that Rowcliffe held out to her without looking at
him. She was looking at Alice.
Alice gave a low cry and struggled to her feet.
"I thought you were never coming," she said.
Gwenda held her in her arms. She faced them.
"What have you been doing to her--all of you?"
Rowcliffe answered. Though he was the innocent one of the three he
looked the guiltiest. He looked utterly ashamed.
"We've had rather a scene, and it's been a bit too much for her," he
said.
"So I see," said Gwenda. She had not greeted Mary or her father.
"If you could persuade her to go upstairs to bed----"
"I've told you I won't go till he comes," said Ally.
She sat down on the sofa as a sign that she was going to wait.
"Till who comes?" Gwenda asked.
She stared at the three with a fierce amazement. And they were
abashed.
"She doesn't know, Steve," said Mary.
"I certainly don't," said Gwenda.
She sat down beside Ally.
"Has anybody been bullying you, Ally?"
"They've all been bullying me except Steven. Steven's been an angel.
He doesn't believe what they say. Papa says I'm a shameful girl, and
Mary says I took Jim Greatorex from Essy. And they think----"
"Never mind what they think, darling."
"I must protest----"
The Vicar would have burst out again but that his son-in-law
restrained him.
"Better leave her to Gwenda," he said.
He opened the door of the study. "Really, sir, I think you'd better.
And you, too, Mary."
And with her husband's compelling hand on her shoulder Mary went into
the study.
The Vicar followed them.
* * * * *
As the door closed on them Alice looked furtively around.
"What is it, Ally?" Gwenda said.
"Don't you know?" she whispered.
"No. You haven't told me anything."
"You don't know why I sent for you? Can't you think?"
Gwenda was silent.
"Gwenda--I'm in the most awful trouble----" She looked around again.
Then she spoke rapidly and low with a fearful hoarse intensity.
"I won't tell them, but I'll tell you. They've been trying to get it
out of me by bullying, but I wasn't going to let them. Gwenda--they
wanted to make me tell straight out, there--before Steven. And I
wouldn't--I wouldn't. They haven't got a word out of me. But it's
true, what they say."
She paused.
"About me."
"My lamb, I don't know what they say about you."
"They say that I'm going to----"
Crouching where she sat, bent forward, staring with her stare, she
whispered.
"Oh--Ally--darling----"
"I'm not ashamed, not the least little bit ashamed. And I don't care
what they think of me. But I'm not going to tell them. I've told _you_
because I know you won't hate me, you won't think me awful. But I
won't tell Mary, and I won't tell Papa. Or Steven. If I do they'll
make me marry him."
"Was it--was it----"
Ally's instinct heard the name that her sister spared her.
"Yes--Yes--Yes. It is."