She had written to Mr. Johnson, and charged him to do everything
he could to defend Dixon and to spare no expense. She was thinking of
going to the prison in the county town, to see the old man herself, but
Ellinor could perceive that all these endeavours and purposes of Miss
Monro's were based on love for her own pupil, and a desire to set her
mind at ease as far as she could, rather than from any idea that Dixon
himself could be innocent. Ellinor put down the letters, and went to the
door, then turned back, and locked them up in her writing-case with
trembling hands; and after that she entered the drawing-room, looking
liker to a ghost than to a living woman.
"Can I speak to you for a minute alone?" Her still, tuneless voice made
the words into a command. Canon Livingstone arose and followed her into
the little dining-room. "Will you tell me all you know--all you have
heard about my--you know what?"
"Miss Monro was my informant--at least at first--it was in the _Times_
the day before I left. Miss Monro says it could only have been done in a
moment of anger if the old servant is really guilty; that he was as
steady and good a man as she ever knew, and she seems to have a strong
feeling against Mr. Dunster, as always giving your father much
unnecessary trouble; in fact, she hints that his disappearance at the
time was supposed to be the cause of a considerable loss of property to
Mr.
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