imagination first, and made the boy believe there had been an offense that he was simply too young to understand.
Swynford? He had done the same-or had he? Perhaps he now guessed that it had all been a monumental catastrophe of lies; but who would dare admit such a thing? It could not be undone. Jerome was convicted. Swynford's fury was gross and offensive, but there was no reasorfto believe it was guilt of anything but connivance at a lie to protect his own. Accessory perhaps to the death of Jerome? But not the murder of Arthur.
So who-and why?
The murderer was still unknown. It could be anyone at all, someone they had never even heard of-some anonymous pimp or furtive customer.
It was some days before Charlotte learned the truth, which was waiting for her when she returned home from a visit to Emily. They had been working on their crusade, which had by no means been abandoned. There was a carriage pulled up in the street outside her door, and a footman and a driver were huddled in it as if they had been there long enough to grow cold. Of course, it was not Emily's, since she had just left Emily, nor was it her mother's or Aunt Vespasia's.
She hurried inside and found Callantha Swynford sitting by -the fire in the parlor, a tray of tea in front of her and Gracie hovering anxiously, twisting her fingers in her apron.
Callantha, her face pale, stood up as soon as Charlotte came in.
'Charlotte, I do hope you will forgive my calling upon you, after-after that distressing scene. I-I am most deeply ashamed!'
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'Thank you, Grade,' Charlotte said quickly. 'Please bring me another cup, and then you may leave to attend to Miss Jemima.', As soon as she had gone, Charlotte turned back to Callantha. 'There is no need to be. I know very well you had no desire for such a thing. If you have called because of that, please put it out of your mind. I bear no resentment at all.'
'I am grateful.' Callantha was still standing. 'But that is not my principal reason for coming. The day you spoke with Titus, he told me what you had said to each other, and ever since then I have been thinking. I have learned a great deal from you and Emily.'
Gracie came in with the cup and left in silence.
'Please, would you not care to sit down?' Charlotte invited. 'And perhaps take more tea? It is still quite hot.'
'No, thank you. This is easier to say if I am standing.' She remained with her back half towards Charlotte as she looked out the French windows into the garden and the bare trees in the rain. 'I would be grateful if you would suffer me to complete what I have to say without interrupting me, in case I lose my courage.'
'Of course, if you wish.' Charlotte poured her own tea.
'I do. As I said, I have learned a great deal since you and Emily first came to my house-nearly all of it extremely unpleasant. I had no idea that human beings indulged themselves in such practices, or that so many people lived in poverty so very painful. I suppose it was all there for me to see, had I chosen to, but I belong to a family and a class that does not choose to.
'But since I have been obliged to see a little, through the things you have told me and shown me, I have begun to think for myself and to notice things. Words and expressions that I had previously ignored have now come to have meaning-even things within my own family. I have told my cousin Benita Waybourne about our efforts to make child prostitution intolerable, and I have enlisted her support. She, too, has opened her eyes to unplesantness she had previously allowed herself to ignore.
'All this must seem very pointless to you, but please bear with me-it is not.
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'I realized the day you spoke to Titus that both he and Godfrey had been beguiled into giving evidence against Mr. Jerome which
