"Mr. Wardour," he said, "what am I to do? Please advise me. If we
raise a hue and cry, it will set people saying all manner of
things, pleasant neither for you nor for us."
"That is your business, Mr. Helmer," answered Godfrey, bitterly.
"It is you who have brought this shame on her."
"You are a cold-hearted man," said Tom. "But there is no shame in
the matter. I will soon make that clear--if only I knew where to
go after her. The thing is to me utterly mysterious: there are
neither robbers nor wild beasts about Thornwick. What _can_
have happened to her?"
He turned his back on Godfrey for a moment, then, suddenly
wheeling, broke out:
"I will tell you what it is; I see it all now; she found out that
she had been seen, and was too terrified to go into the house
again!--Mr. Wardour," he continued, with a new look in his eyes,
"I have more reason to be suspicious of you and your mother than
you have to suspect me. Your treatment of Letty has not been of
the kindest."
So Letty had been accusing him of unkindness! Ready as he now was
to hear anything to her disadvantage, it was yet a fresh stab to
the heart of him. Was this the girl for whom, in all honesty and
affection, he had sought to do so much! How could she say he was
unkind to her?--and say it to a fellow like this? It was
humiliating, indeed! But he would not defend himself.
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