piecemeal out.

"Oh! an at that Papist shop i' th' High Street--you remember that
sickly-lukin fellow at the dance--they do say at they do taak shameful!"
exclaimed Polly indignantly.

"What do they say?" said Laura in a low voice.

Polly hesitated. Then out of sheer nervousness she blundered into the
harshest possible answer.

"Well, they said that Mr. Helbeck could do no different, that he did it
to save his sister from knowing----"

"Knowing what?" said Laura.

Polly declared that she wasn't just certain. "A set o' slanderin
backbitin tabbies as soom o' them Catholics is!" But she believed they
said that Mr. Helbeck had asked Miss Fountain to marry him out of
kindness, to shut people's mouths, and keep it from his sister----

"Keep what?" said Laura. Her eyes shone in her quivering proud face.

"Why, I suppose--at you'd been carryin on wi Hubert, and walkin aboot wi
him aw neet," said Polly reluctantly.

And she again insisted how much wiser it would have been if Laura had
just gone quietly over the sands to Marsland. There, no doubt, she might
have got a car straight away, and there might have been no talk whatever.