"I never saw him--and I was in the garden, about that very time, with your stepson, Mr.Folliot." "So Sackville told me," remarked Folliot.

"He was present--and so was I--when Mrs.Deramore was tattling about it in our house yesterday.

He said, then, that he'd never seen the man go to your house.

You never heard your servants make any remark about it ?" "Never!" answered Mary.
"I told Mrs.Deramore she'd far better hold her tongue," continued Folliot.

"Tittle-tattle of that sort is apt to lead to unpleasantness.
And when it came to it, it turned out that all she had seen was this stranger strolling across the Close as if he'd just left your house.
If--there's always some if! But I'll tell you why I mentioned it to you," he continued, nudging Mary's elbow and glancing covertly first at her and then at his house on the far side of the garden.