‘Well, that’s true, of course. Nothing could possibly excuse deliberate falsification.’
‘There’s no sense in deliberate falsification, anyhow,’ said the Bursar. ‘What could anybody gain by it?’
‘It has been done,’ said Miss Hillyard, ‘frequently. To get the better of an argument. Or out of ambition.’
‘Ambition to be what?’ cried Miss Lydgate. ‘What satisfaction could one possibly get out of a reputation one knew one didn’t deserve? It would be horrible.’
Her innocent indignation upset everybody’s gravity.
‘How about the Forged Decretals ... Chatterton ... Ossian ... Henry Ireland ... those Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets the other day ...’
‘I know,’ said Miss Lydgate, perplexed. ‘I know people do it. But why? They must be mad.’
‘In the same novel,’ said the Dean, ‘somebody deliberately
