Margaret was very pleased that Mr. Thornton had come to visit. It had been almost a week since her mother passed and her father was still understandably quite out of sorts. But the arrival of Mr. Thornton seemed to revive him somewhat. He had been very solicitous to her father as well as herself upon his arrival. This surprised Margaret for her sake after what he had witnessed at Outwood Station just days before.
Margaret thought, 'He must be a truly caring man to be able to overlook my seeming impropriety and condole with me.' Margaret's heart ached a little, longingly.
She sat with Mr. Thornton and her father for quite a while listening to him engage her father in conversation and offer comforting words. Then Dixon came and called her out of the room.
A police inspector had come to see Margaret. She feared this visit had something to do with Fred.
As the inspector explained the reason for his visit Margaret's face was impassive and she did not speak. However, her thoughts ran wild.
'Oh dear! That man Leonards had died! And they think his death was caused by the man who pushed him - Fred! I was recognized there! But I don't know if Fred is safely out of England yet. I must protect him.'
"I was not there," was all Margaret could say and she had to say it twice – to perjure herself twice!
It devastated her to have to go against every fiber of her moral upbringing and tell a falsehood. However, she could see no other way. She could not reveal Fred's presence at the scene of the crime and risk the authorities pursuing him while he might still be in the country.
Finally the inspector left. However he told her that he might have to come back. What will she do then, if the witnesses he spoke of insist that it was her?
She shut the front door as the inspector left, and went half-way into the study; then turned back, as if moved by some passionate impulse, and locked the front door from the inside. As if that would keep her troubles without.
Then she went into the study, paused-tottered forward-paused again-swayed for an instant where she stood, and fell prone on the floor in a dead swoon.
…..oOo…..
All the while Margaret was gone Mr. Thornton sate on and on. He felt that his company gave pleasure to Mr. Hale. He wondered Margaret did not return; but it was with no view of seeing her that he lingered. He was deeply interested in all her father said.
It was curious how the presence of Mr. Thornton had power over Mr. Hale to make him unlock the secret thoughts which he kept shut up even from Margaret. [H]e could unburden himself better to Mr. Thornton than to her. Mr. Thornton said very little; but every sentence he uttered added to Mr. Hale's reliance and regard for him. They never spoke of such things again, as it happened; but this one conversation made them peculiar people to each other; knit them together, in a way which no loose indiscriminate talking about sacred things can ever accomplish.
Mr. Thornton heard a heavy thud from somewhere in the house. Amidst his grief and contemplation, Mr. Hale did not seem to have noticed it. However, Mr. Thornton was quite concerned and giving some excuse that would not upset his friend and a promise to return he went to investigate.