But Leo, with a nod, was making for the door. "I must tell Sybil," he
said, and vanished.
Half-an-hour later the vicar and his father went in search of him. They
found him sitting hand in hand with Sybil in the drawing-room. "It's
really wonderful, wonderful!" she was saying.
"And your father will let me marry you now, darling," said Leo.
"If you will grant him your pardon," said the voice of Mr Tempest.
Leo shook the vicar's hand, kissed Sybil, and Kilspindie smiled,
well-pleased.
CHAPTER XX
MRS GABRIEL'S SECRET
Mrs Jeal was not pleased. She was a woman who liked to make mischief,
and preferred to leave sorrow rather than joy behind her. In her time
she had caused a good deal of misery, and she had always rejoiced over
it. But now that she had been forced to undo the evil she had committed,
her heart ached. Bad as Pratt was, his wife was worse, and if he had
indeed killed her, as he had threatened, he would have been doing a
service to mankind. Mrs Jeal was a noxious snake who should have been
killed without pity.
On leaving the Vicarage she went home at once and found the cottage
empty, as Pearl had not yet returned. Mrs Jeal brought out the letter
and again read it. Then she turned white and shivered; finally she put
it into the fire, and watched it burn to black ashes. Afterwards she
filled herself a glass of brandy and drank it neat. Yet she was an
abstemious woman as a rule. There must have been something very terrible
in that letter to make her take to strong drink. And what was in it no
one in Colester ever found out. Having burned it, Mrs Jeal put it out of
her mind as well as she was able. Yet often afterwards she shivered to
think of what would have happened had it been opened in the Vicarage
library. "A narrow shave that," muttered Mrs Jeal.
Shortly, when she had recovered herself in some measure, Pearl danced
into the room. She was now quite her old happy self. The restoration of
the cup made her believe that God had forgiven her, and that the Master
believed her worthy to be the guardian of the Holy Grail. Raston had
arranged the matter in order to save her from further misery. Early on
Sunday morning he had taken the cup across the moor and had placed it on
the turf altar, knowing that there Pearl, as was her custom, would come
and seek it. He had not anticipated such a dramatic scene as had taken
place in the chapel. Pearl believed in her own weak mind that the Master
had brought the cup down again from Heaven. She was therefore glad and
merry, and her singing and dancing annoyed Mrs Jeal.
"Keep quiet, you minx!" she cried savagely, "or I'll have you shut up.
Where have you been after making an exhibition of yourself?"
"I have been looking at the cup," said Pearl, gaily. "It is on the
altar. I am pleased the Master has given it again into my charge. He has
forgiven me, and some day I shall be with Him in Paradise."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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