The old man had been in a trance, a very long trance, to say the least of it, and had got up a changed creature.

Principal Trenholme was not prepared to scout the idea that he had been nearer to death than falls to the lot of most living men.
It will be seen that the common sense of the speakers shaped crude rumour to suit themselves.

Had they left it crude, it would have died.
It is upon the nice sense of the probable and possible in talkative men that mad rumour feeds.
As for Trenholme, he became more or less aware of the report that had gone out about his private knowledge of old Cameron, but it was less rather than more.

The scholastic life of the college was quite apart from the life of the village, and in the village those who talked most about Cameron were the least likely to talk to Trenholme on any subject.
His friends were not those who were concerned with the rumour; but even when he was taxed with it, the whole truth that he knew was no apparent contradiction.

He wrote to Alec, making further inquiries, but Alec had retreated again many miles from the post.