So much for the scheme; Calvert himself upset its fulfilment. Rumours of Brand’s treatment of his sisters had reached the older man, and on the single occasion when, in the past, Brand and he had come across each other, he taxed him openly with having done to death two innocent women. More than this. He accused him of having cleverly engineered Cummings into "that hotbed of lying and deception, the Roman Church." He stated facts so clearly that the pose of outraged honour and hurt susceptibility, with which Brand at first met his attack, broke down completely. The very setting of the interview was undignified. It took place in the hall, with butler and footman within hearing. "There’s a notice up, inside, no dogs admitted," said Calvert grimly. Advancing years weakened convictions; Brand always hoped that with increasing age Calvert’s opinions might change. But with Farquharson’s entry into Taorna, the last hope died. It was doubly unfortunate for Brand that, at this period, his name should often have been mentioned in connection with a notorious case where there was a strong inference of blackmail, even if it could not actually be proved. Oh, those hysterical women, with their love of keeping letters! All this took place some years before Brand’s marriage. He went abroad again until the storm blew over. This rumour, at least, had never reached Evelyn. Had others, he wondered? In all such matters she was so strictly rigid; he often wondered if her uncompromising views of sin were the result of temperament or convent education. Uncompromising to sin, that is to say—not to the sinner. His wife seemed to separate action from actor. The sin itself was loathsome, repulsive—it made her shrink. The sinner was wounded, and for him she had healing balms and ointments. But where another woman would have slurred over the cause of the hurt, she spoke of it confidently by name, confronting adultery or theft as she would any other mortal combat. "We talk of Magersfontein and Colenso," she said once. "If we’d met sin on another kind of battle-field and been defeated, why should we be ashamed to call the battle-field by its own name?"