“Yes,” answered Langholm, sadly; “yes, I have heard.”

“And yet—­”

He interrupted her in another tone.

“I know what you are going to say!  I give you warning, Mrs. Steel, I won’t listen to it.  No ‘and yets’ for me; remember the belief I had, long before I knew anything at all!  It ought not to be a whit stronger for what I guessed yesterday for myself, and what your husband has this minute confirmed.  Yet it is, if possible, ten thousand times stronger and more sure!”

“I do remember,” said Rachel, slowly; “and, in my turn, I believe what you say.”

But her face did not alter as she took his hand; her own was so cold that he looked at her in alarm; and the whole woman seemed turned to stone.  Yet the dinner went on without further hitch; it might have been the very smallest and homeliest affair, to which only these guests had been invited.  Indeed, the menu had been reduced, like the table, by the unerring tact of Rachel’s husband, so that there was no undue memorial to the missing one-and-twenty, and the whole ordeal was curtailed.

There was, on the other hand, no blinking what had happened, no pretence of ignoring the one subject which was in everybody’s thoughts.  Thus Mrs. Woodgate exclaimed aloud, what she was thinking to herself, that she would never speak to Mrs. Venables again in all her life, and her husband told her across the table that she had better not.  Rachel thereupon put in her word, to the effect that the Woodgates would cut themselves off from everybody if they made enemies of all who disbelieved in her, and she could not allow them to do anything of the kind.  Steel, again, speculated upon the probable behavior of the Uniackes and the Invernesses, neither of these distinguished families having been invited to the dinner, for obvious reasons arising from their still recent return to the country.  There was no effort to ignore the absorbing topic before the butler and his satellites, but the line was drawn in the right place, excluding as it did any reference to the rout of Mrs. Venables, and indeed all details whatsoever.

The butler, however, and in a less degree the footman, presented a rather interesting study during the course of this momentous meal, had the professional observer present been only a little less concerned for his hostess.  The butler was a pompous but capable creature, whom Steel had engaged when he bought the place.  Though speedily reduced to a more respectful servitude than he was accustomed to, the man had long since ceased to complain of his situation, which carried with it the highest wages and all arbitrary powers over his subordinates.  On the steps, at her deferred departure, Mrs. Venables had screamed the secret of his mistress’s identity into the butler’s ear.  The butler had risen with dignity to the occasion, and, after a brief interview, resigned on the spot with all his men.  The mild interest was in the present behavior of these gentry, which was a rich blend of dignity and depression, and betrayed a growing doubt as to whether the sinking ship, that they had been so eager to abandon, was really sinking after all.