'Is this true? I had heard something of it before - not much; but there is scandal enough about to make it desirable that you should have some protector - some friend who knows the whole truth.'
No answer.At last she said, 'Molly knows it all.'
Mrs Gibson, too, had been awed into silence by her husband's grave manner, and she did not like to give vent to the jealous thought in her mind that Molly had known the secret of which she was ignorant.Mr Gibson replied to Cynthia with some sternness, -'Yes! I know that Molly knows it all, and that she has had to bear slander and ill words for your sake, Cynthia.But she refused to tell me more.'
'She told you that much, did she?' said Cynthia, aggrieved.
'I could not help it,' said Molly.
'She did not name your name,' said Mr Gibson.'At the time I believe she thought she had concealed it - but there was no mistaking who it was.'
'Why did she speak about it at all?' said Cynthia, with some bitterness.
Her tone - her question stirred up Mr Gibson's passion.
'It was necessary for her to justify herself to me - I heard my daughter's reputation attacked for the private meetings she had given to Mr Preston - I came to her for an explanation.There is no need to be ungenerous, Cynthia, because you have been a flirt and a jilt even to the degree of dragging Molly's name down into the same mire.'
Cynthia lifted her bowed-down head, and looked at him.
'You say that of me, Mr Gibson.Not knowing what the circumstances are, you say that!'
He had spoken too strongly: he knew it.But he could not bring himself to own it just at that moment.The thought of his sweet innocent Molly, who had borne so much patiently, prevented any retractation of his words at the time.