Something leads me to believe
that you can do more for Addison than any one else. Addison once implied
it; but what I have observed for myself in your house leads me to be
certain of it."
"Oh," said Cuckoo.
She had nothing more to say. She could have said nothing more. The stress
of her excitement was too great.
"Look at that holly tree. What a quantity of berries it has!" the doctor
said. "That's because it is a hard winter. Miss Bright, you are right in
you conviction. Valentine Cresswell is--has been--totally evil, and is
deliberately, coldly, but with determination, compassing the utter ruin
of the man who trusts him and believes in him--of Addison."
Cuckoo nodded again, this time with a strangely matter-of-course air,
which assured the doctor in a flash of the long certainty of her
knowledge of Valentine.
"Such a thing seemed to me entirely incredible," the doctor pursued. "I
am forced--forced--to believe it is true. But remember this: I have known
Mr. Cresswell for several years intimately. I have been again and again
with him and Julian. I have noticed the extraordinary influence he had
over Julian, and I know that influence used to be a noble influence, used
solely for good. Mr. Cresswell was a man of extraordinary high-mindedness
and purity of life.
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