'Oh! as for that,' said Mary, laughing, 'I will not confess to any offence, not yet to any punishment; certainly not to any punishment.'
'It comes to the same thing in the end.'
'No, not so, Patience; there is always some little sting of disgrace in punishment: now I am not going to hold myself in the least disgraced.'
'But, Mary, you must meet the Greshams sometimes.'
'Meet them! I have not the slightest objection on earth to meet all, or any of them. They are not a whit dangerous to me, my dear. 'Tis that I am the wild beast, and 'tis that they must avoid me,' and then she added, after a pause--slightly blushing--'I have not the slightest objection even to meet him if chance brings him in my way. Let them look to that. My undertaking goes no further than this, that I will not be seen within their gates.'
But the girls so far understood each other that Patience undertook, rather than promised, to give Mary what assistance she could; and, despite Mary's bravado, she was in such a position that she much wanted the assistance of such a friend as Patience Oriel.
After an absence of some six weeks, Frank, as we have seen, returned home. Nothing was said to him, except by Beatrice, as to those new Greshamsbury arrangements; and he, when he found Mary was not at the place, went boldly to the doctor's house to seek her. But it has been seen, also, that she discreetly kept out of his way. This she had thought fit to do when the time came, although she had been so ready with her boast that she had no objection on earth to meet him.
After that there had been the Christmas vacation, and Mary had again found discretion the better part of valour. This was doubtless disagreeable enough. She had no particular wish to spend her Christmas with Miss Oriel's aunt instead of at her uncle's fireside. Indeed, her Christmas festivities had hitherto been kept at Greshamsbury, the doctor and herself having a part of the family circle there assembled.
This was out of the question now; and perhaps the absolute change to old Miss Oriel's house was better for her than the lesser change to her uncle's drawing-room. Besides, how could she have demeaned herself when she met Frank in their parish church? All this had been fully understood by Patience, and, therefore, had this Christmas visit been planned.
And then this affair of Frank and Mary Thorne ceased for a while to be talked of at Greshamsbury, for that other affair of Mr Moffat and Augusta monopolized the rural attention. Augusta, as we have said, bore it well, and sustained the public gaze without much flinching. Her period of martyrdom, however, did not last long, for soon the news arrived of Frank's exploit in Pall Mall; and then the Greshamburyites forgot to think much more of Augusta, being fully occupied in thinking of what Frank had done.
The tale, as it was first told, declared the Frank had followed Mr Moffat up into his club; had dragged him thence into the middle of Pall Mall, and had then slaughtered him on the spot. This was by degrees modified till a sobered fiction became generally prevalent, that Mr Moffat was lying somewhere, still alive, but with all his bones in a state of compound fracture. This adventure again brought Frank into the ascendant, and restored to Mary her former position as the Greshamsbury heroine.
'One cannot wonder at his being very angry,' said Beatrice, discussing the matter with Mary--very imprudently.
'Wonder--no; the wonder would have been if he had not been angry. One might have been quite sure that he would have been angry enough.'
'I suppose it was not absolutely right for him to beat Mr Moffat,' said Beatrice, apologetically.
'Not right, Trichy? I think he was very right.'
'Not to beat him so much, Mary!'
'Oh, I suppose a man can't exactly stand measuring how much he does these things. I like your brother for what he has done, and I may say so frankly--though I suppose I ought to eat my tongue out before I should say such a thing, eh Trichy?'
'I don't know that there's any harm in that,' said Beatrice, demurely.
