all who knew her--to find her linked mysteriously with an ill-omened
man, alarmed at his appearance, and yet favouring his escape, was a
discovery that pained as much as startled him. Her reliance on his
secrecy, and his tacit acquiescence, increased his distress of mind. If
he had spoken boldly, persisted in questioning her, detained her
when she rose to leave the room, made any kind of protest, instead of
silently compromising himself, as he felt he had done, he would have
been more at ease.

'Why did I let her say it was a secret, and she trusted it to me!' said
Gabriel, putting his wig on one side to scratch his head with greater
ease, and looking ruefully at the fire. 'I have no more readiness than
old John himself. Why didn't I say firmly, "You have no right to such
secrets, and I demand of you to tell me what this means," instead of
standing gaping at her, like an old moon-calf as I am! But there's my
weakness. I can be obstinate enough with men if need be, but women may
twist me round their fingers at their pleasure.'

He took his wig off outright as he made this reflection, and, warming
his handkerchief at the fire began to rub and polish his bald head with
it, until it glistened again.

'And yet,' said the locksmith, softening under this soothing process,
and stopping to smile, 'it MAY be nothing. Any drunken brawler trying to
make his way into the house, would have alarmed a quiet soul like her.
But then'--and here was the vexation--'how came it to be that man; how
comes he to have this influence over her; how came she to favour his
getting away from me; and, more than all, how came she not to say it
was a sudden fright, and nothing more? It's a sad thing to have, in one
minute, reason to mistrust a person I have known so long, and an old