"And I believe it.
I have stood up for her all through.
All the same, Ware, there would be a scandal if she came back as Mrs. Ware."
"I don't care two straws for that," said Giles, flinging back his head.
"No," she replied dryly, "I know that.
You're an obstinate man, as any one can see with half an eye. Well, I'm glad to see you again.
Sit down in the armchair yonder and tell me what you have been doing all these months.
No good, if your face is the index of your mind."
Ware laughed, and sitting down managed to stow his long legs out of the way—no easy matter in the little room.
Then he accepted a cup of excellent tea from Mrs. Parry and some of her celebrated cake.
He did not reply immediately, as he did not want to tell her the truth.
She had too long a tongue to be told anything which it was necessary to keep secret. He put her off as he best could with a general answer.
"I have just been going to and fro."
"Like Satan," sniffed Mrs. Parry. "He's your model, is he?
So you have been searching for Anne.
Where?"
"In Paris and in London.
But I can't find her."
"She doesn't want you to find her," replied the old lady. "If she did, you would stand face to face with her soon enough."
"That goes without the speaking," retorted Ware. "However, my adventures would not amuse you, Mrs. Parry.
Suppose you tell me what has been going on in these parts?"
"As if I knew anything of what was going on," said Mrs. Parry.
Giles laughed.
It was a fiction with Mrs. Parry that she never interfered with other people's business, whereas there was not a pie within miles into which she had not thrust her finger.
But he knew how to start her tongue.
"The Morleys, what about them?"
"No change, Ware.
The Tricolor has gone to school—I mean the three children—although I can't get out of the habit of calling them by that ridiculous name.
Mrs. Morley is as dismal as ever, and seems to miss Anne very much."
"As well she might.
Anne was a good friend to her.
And Morley?"
"He has found a new friend," said Mrs. Parry triumphantly, "a man called Franklin."
"George Franklin!" cried Ware, startled, for he had heard all about the fortune from Steel. "He is the man who inherited the five thousand a year that Powell left to Daisy.
Steel, the detective, told me, and, now I think of it, Morley told me himself when I was ill."
"It's the same man, Ware.
He has been here two months, and has taken the Priory."
"That's a cheerful place," said Giles. "Why, it has been standing empty for three years."
"I know.
The last tenants left because they said it was haunted."
"Rubbish!
And by what?"
"By a white lady.
She wanders up and down the park, wringing her hands.
But this Franklin evidently does not believe in ghosts, for he has been there these two months, and never a word from him."
"What kind of a man is he?"
"A tall man, with very black eyes, and a black beard.
No," added Mrs. Parry, correcting herself, "I am wrong.
He had a beard when he first came, and now has shaved it off."
"Have you seen much of him?"