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“Don’t you believe your business will suffer. You’ll get a good advertisement out of the gossip—if there is any.”

But though he spoke with great confidence, he was not really quite convinced that he was speaking the truth.

“Besides, who is likely to know about it except ourselves, until the case comes on? And I don’t believe that Mrs. Holmes will ever bring it into Court.”

“Every one seems to know about it already,” returned Ann. “Some one in Mr. Miller’s office has spread the news.”

“I’d soon fire a clerk of mine who talked outside the office,” said Ford, grimly.

In his heart he was cursing Vera, and resolving that he’d leave no stone unturned to help this poor persecuted child. But he had learnt that it was wiser not to give expression to his sympathy; so he continued to talk quite unemotionally about impersonal matters, while Ann wiped her eyes, and dabbed at her nose with her sodden handkerchief.

“I’ll get Mary to call and see her,” he was thinking. “Mary’ll know what to do better than I can. And if Mary can’t stop tongues wagging in Wairiri then no one can.” He had unlimited, and not misplaced, confidence in the wisdom of his wife.

At last Ann felt that she was presentable enough to appear in public, and saying good-by to the lawyer, she walked back to her own block of buildings, where Mrs. Hill sat in the hat shop waiting for her return.

The day passed without a single customer entering the showroom. Was this the beginning of the end, Ann wondered? Had the rumored scandal already