She made another slip when she spoke thus of Major Castleton, and
Durrance did not pass it by unnoticed. He remembered it, and thought it
over in his gun-room at Guessens. It added something to the explanation
which he was building up of Harry Feversham's disgrace and
disappearance. The story was gradually becoming clear to his sharpened
wits. Captain Willoughby's visit and the token he had brought had given
him the clue. A white feather could mean nothing but an accusation of
cowardice. Durrance could not remember that he had ever detected any
signs of cowardice in Harry Feversham, and the charge startled him
perpetually into incredulity.
But the fact remained. Something had happened on the night of the ball
at Lennon House, and from that date Harry had been an outcast. Suppose
that a white feather had been forwarded to Lennon House, and had been
opened in Ethne's presence? Or more than one white feather? Ethne had
come back from her long talk with Willoughby holding that white feather
as though there was nothing so precious in all the world.
So much Mrs. Adair had told him.
It followed, then, that the cowardice was atoned, or in one particular
atoned.
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