‘If I had thought that, I shouldn’t have been so silly as to come running to you and tell you all I suspected this morning, should I? Besides, you have an alibi; it was in the paper; you were in Wandford last evening, one of the judges at the Open Air Dancing. I saw the advertisement. So you couldn’t have been at Puddler Pond with the rest of the coven.’

‘With the what? I didn’t quite catch the last word.’

‘Coven,’ she said. ‘A gathering of witches. They have four main ones, Candlemas, Midsummer Eve, Lammas and All Hallowse’en.’

‘How singularly well informed you seem to be upon the subject. One might almost . . .’ His sombre expression lightened for a second, his eyes almost twinkling. ‘This is no time for joking,’ he rebuked himself. ‘Well, it’s some slight comfort to know that you don’t think I am implicated. And that’s about the only comfort in the whole sorry affair. I’m deeply sorry that what seemed a very happy and unique relationship should have been brought to an end thus, but I am at the same time bound to say that I think you must do as your conscience dictates. Come along, I’ll take you home.’

She said in a weak, tearful voice, ‘I’m sorry, too.’

‘Now, please, don’t cry any more. I can’t bear it. I’m Only human. I happened to like Wesley Baines; I’m sorry for Emily and the boy. But I’m supposed to go on, functioning like a machine. Run to old Thorby; he’ll see to it. I try. But there are times. So, please, do what you like, make Walwyk the laughing-stock of the popular press, bring coach loads of sensation hunters to gape at us, but don’t, I beg you, cry any more, because I simply can’t bear it.’

‘I won’t,’ she said, mastering herself. ‘Canon Thorby, about tomorrow. Am I to regard myself as dismissed now? If so, I should like your permission to go into the school and leave it as I should like it to be found.’

‘Your dismissal is entirely dependent upon your action tomorrow. Until you broadcast your nonsense, there is no change in the situation. And if, having thought things over, you allow wiser thoughts to prevail, as I very much hope you will do, you may depend upon me never to mention or even think of this business again.’

He smiled as he made this promise, and again, when, at her door, he took leave of her. But he also put out his hand and when she had placed her own in it, held it for a perceptible space, as though he were taking leave of her for ever.

13