CHAPTER XXIV.
TORMENTED BY DOUBT.
The long homeward walk gave Gilbert ample leisure for reflection upon his interview with Sir David; a very unsatisfactory interview at the best.
Yes, the conviction that the man who had wronged him was no other than his own familiar friend, had flashed upon him with a new force as the Baronet answered his questions about John Holbrook.

The suspicion which had entered his mind after he left the lonely farm-house near Crosber, and which he had done his uttermost to banish, as if it had been a suggestion of the evil one, came back to him to-day with a form and reality which it had lacked before.

It seemed no longer a vague fancy, a dark unwelcome thought that bordered on folly.

It had taken a new shape altogether, and appeared to him almost a certainty.
Sir David's refusal to make any direct denial of the fact seemed to confirm his suspicion.

Yet it was, on the other hand, just possible that Sir David, finding him on a false scent, should have been willing to let him follow it, and that the real offender should be screened by this suspicion of John Saltram.