"Luke Roy is too inoffensive to harm any one, least of all a woman, and Rachel; and that the whole parish knows." "There's no need to discuss Luke's name in the business," said Mr.
Verner; "he is far enough away.

Whoever the man may have been, it was not Luke," he emphatically added.

"Luke would have been the one to succour Rachel, not to hurt her." Not a soul present but felt that Mr.Verner spoke in strict accordance with the facts, known and presumptive.

They must look in another quarter than Luke for Rachel's assailant.
Mr.Verner glanced at Mr.Bitterworth and Dr.West, then at the three young men before him.
"We are amongst friends," he observed, addressing the latter.

"I would ask you, individually, whether it was one of you that the boy, Duff, spoke of as being in the lane ?" They positively disclaimed it, each one for himself.