"Yes! I am sorry to leave such charming company, but I have an engagement. Good-bye, Miss Norsham; your tea was worthy of the fair hands which made it. Good-bye, Mrs Pansey. Let us hope that the authorities will discover and punish this unknown Cain."
"Cain or Jezebel," said Mrs Pansey, darkly, "it"s one or the other of them."
Whether the good lady meant to indicate Miss Which.e.l.lo by the second name, Mr Cargrim did not stay to inquire, as he was in a hurry to see her himself and find out why she had visited the dead-house. He therefore bowed and smiled himself out of Mrs Pansey"s gaol, and walked as rapidly as he was able to the little house in the shadow of the cathedral towers. Here he found Miss Which.e.l.lo all alone, as Mab had gone out to tea with some friends. The little lady welcomed him warmly, quite ignorant of what a viper she was inviting to warm itself on her hearth, and visitor and hostess were soon chattering amicably on the most friendly of terms.
Gradually Cargrim brought round the conversation to Mrs Pansey and mentioned that he had been paying her a visit.
"I hope you enjoyed yourself, I"m sure, Mr Cargrim," said Miss Which.e.l.lo, good-humouredly, "but it gives me no pleasure to visit Mrs Pansey."
"Well, do you know, Miss Which.e.l.lo, I find her rather amusing. She is a very observant lady, and converses wittily about what she observes."
"She talks scandal, if that is what you mean."
"I am afraid that word is rather harsh, Miss Which.e.l.lo."
"It may be, sir, but it is rather appropriate--to Mrs Pansey! Well! and who was she talking about to-day?"
"About several people, my dear lady; yourself amongst the number."
"Indeed!" Miss Which.e.l.lo drew her little body up stiffly. "And had she anything unpleasant to say about me?"
"Oh, not at all. She only remarked that she saw you visiting the dead-house last week."
Miss Which.e.l.lo let fall her cup with a crash, and turned pale. "How does she know that?" was her sharp question.
"She saw you," repeated the chaplain; "and in spite of your veil she recognised you by your cloak and bonnet."
"I am greatly obliged to Mrs Pansey for the interest she takes in my business," said Miss Which.e.l.lo, in her most stately manner. "I did visit the Beorminster dead-house. There!"
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CHAPLAIN ON THE WARPATH
Miss Which.e.l.lo"s frank admission that she had visited the dead-house rather disconcerted Mr Cargrim. From the circ.u.mstance of the veil, he had presumed that she wished her errand there to be unknown, in which case her conduct would have appeared highly suspicious, since she was supposed to know nothing about Jentham or Jentham"s murder. But her ready acknowledgment of the fact apparently showed that she had nothing to conceal. Cargrim, for all his acuteness, did not guess that of two evils Miss Which.e.l.lo had chosen the least. In truth, she did not wish her visit to the dead-house to be known, but as Mrs Pansey was cognisant of it, she judged it wiser to neutralise any possible harm that that lady could do by admitting the original statement to be a true one. This honesty would take the wind out of Mrs Pansey"s sails, and prevent her from distorting an admitted fact into a fiction of hinted wickedness.
Furthermore, Miss Which.e.l.lo was prepared to give Cargrim a sufficient reason for her visit, so that he might not invent one. Only by so open a course could she keep the secret of her thirty-year-old acquaintance with the dead man. As a rule, the little old lady hated subterfuge, but in this case her only chance of safety lay in beating Pansey, Cargrim and Company with their own weapons. And who can say that she was acting wrongly?
"Yes, Mr Cargrim," she repeated, looking him directly in the face, "Mrs Pansey is right. I was at the dead-house and I went to see the corpse of the man Jentham. I suppose you--and Mrs Pansey--wonder why I did so?"
"Oh, my dear lady!" remonstrated the embarra.s.sed chaplain, "by no means; such knowledge is none of our business--that is, none of _my_ business."
"You have made it your business, however!" observed Miss Which.e.l.lo, dryly, "else you would scarcely have informed me of Mrs Pansey"s unwarrantable remarks on my private affairs. Well, Mr Cargrim, I suppose you know that this tramp attacked my niece on the high road."
"Yes, Miss Which.e.l.lo, I know that."
"Very good; as I considered that the man was a dangerous character I thought that he should be compelled to leave Beorminster; so I went to The Derby Winner on the night that you met me, in order to--"
"To see Mrs Mosk!" interrupted Cargrim, softly, hoping to entrap her.
"In order to see Mrs Mosk, and in order to see Jentham. I intended to tell him that if he did not leave Beorminster at once that I should inform the police of his attack on Miss Arden. Also, as I was willing to give him a chance of reforming his conduct, I intended to supply him with a small sum for his immediate departure. On that night, however, I did not see him, as he had gone over to the gipsy camp. When I heard that he was dead I could scarcely believe it, so, to set my mind at rest, and to satisfy myself that Mab would be in no further danger from his insolence when she walked abroad, I visited the dead-house and saw his body. That, Mr Cargrim, was the sole reason for my visit; and as it concerned myself alone, I wore a veil so as not to provoke remark. It seems that I was wrong, since Mrs Pansey has been discussing me.
However, I hope you will set her mind at rest by telling her what I have told you."
"Really, my dear Miss Which.e.l.lo, you are very severe; I a.s.sure you all this explanation is needless."
"Not while Mrs Pansey has so venomous a tongue, Mr Cargrim. She is quite capable of twisting my innocent desire to a.s.sure myself that Mab was safe from this man into some extraordinary statement without a word of truth in it. I shouldn"t be surprised if Mrs Pansey had hinted to you that I had killed this creature."
As this was precisely what the archdeacon"s widow had done, Cargrim felt horribly uncomfortable under the scorn of Miss Which.e.l.lo"s justifiable indignation. He grew red, and smiled feebly, and murmured weak apologies; all of which Miss Which.e.l.lo saw and heard with supreme contempt. Mr Cargrim, by his late t.i.ttle-tattling conversation, had fallen in her good opinion; and she was not going to let him off without a sharp rebuke for his unfounded chatter. Cutting short his murmurs, she proceeded to nip in the bud any further reports he or Mrs Pansey might spread in connection with the murder, by explaining much more than was needful.
"And if Mrs Pansey should hear that Captain Pendle was on Southberry Heath on Sunday night," she continued, "I trust that she will not accuse him of shooting the man, although as I know, and you know also, Mr Cargrim, she is quite capable of doing so."
"Was Captain Pendle on Southberry Heath?" asked Cargrim, who was already acquainted with this fact, although he did not think it necessary to tell Miss Which.e.l.lo so. "You don"t say so?"
"Yes, he was! He rode over to the gipsy camp to purchase an engagement ring for Miss Arden from Mother Jael. That ring is now on her finger."
"So Miss Arden is engaged to Captain Pendle," cried Cargrim, in a gushing manner. "I congratulate you, and her, and him."
"Thank you, Mr Cargrim," said Miss Which.e.l.lo, stiffly.
"I suppose Captain Pendle saw nothing of Jentham at the gipsy camp?"
"No! he never saw the man at all that evening."
"Did he hear the shot fired?"
"Of course he did not!" cried Miss Which.e.l.lo, wrathfully. "How could he hear with the noise of the storm? You might as well ask if the bishop did; he was on Southberry Heath on that night."
"Oh, yes, but he heard nothing, dear lady; he told me so."
"You seem to be very interested in this murder, Mr Cargrim," said the little lady, with a keen look.
"Naturally, everyone in Beorminster is interested in it. I hope the criminal will be captured."
"I hope so too; do you know who he is?"
"I? my dear lady, how should I know?"
"I thought Mrs Pansey might have told you!" said Miss Which.e.l.lo, coolly.
"She knows all that goes on, and a good deal that doesn"t. But you can tell her that both I and Captain Pendle are innocent, although I _did_ visit the dead-house, and although he _was_ on Southberry Heath when the crime was committed."
"You are very severe, dear lady!" said Cargrim, rising to take his leave, for he was anxious to extricate himself from his very uncomfortable and undignified position.
"Solomon was even more severe, Mr Cargrim. He said, "Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross." I fancy there were Mrs Panseys in those days, Mr Cargrim."
In the face of this choice proverb Mr Cargrim beat a hasty retreat.
Altogether Miss Which.e.l.lo was too much for him; and for once in his life he was at a loss how to gloss over his defeat. Not until he was in Tinkler"s office did he recover his feeling of superiority. With a man--especially with a social inferior--he felt that he could deal; but who can contend with a woman"s tongue? It is her sword and shield; her mouth is her bow; her words are the arrows; and the man who hopes to withstand such an armoury of deadly weapons is a superfine idiot.