Early that same afternoon Miss Prince made her way to the rectory. She felt too anxious, too excited, too restless to stay quietly at home, and she knew that the rector would soon be returning with the news of what had happened.
She and the rector’s wife, Mrs. Cole-Wright, were on terms of armed neutrality rather than friendship, and that though they “ran the parish” between them. Mrs. Cole-Wright was the best-read woman in the neighbourhood. In happier circumstances she might have cut a certain figure in the world. As it was, her sarcastic tongue and reputation for “cleverness” caused her to be avoided by many of her neighbours.
She shared to the full the prevailing excitement concerning Harry Garlett, and so, for once, she was glad to see Miss Prince.
“The rector is not yet back,” she
