Presently, with an abrupt change of subject—only, nothing that Evelyn did ever had an abrupt effect—Mrs. Villiers asked—
"What of Dutton parties and politics?"
"I am not a man of Dutton," was the answer.
"The better able, perhaps, to take a dispassionate outside view."
"That may be," cautiously, "but I am very busy in my own work. Not much time to watch other people."
"I wish 'other people' could say the same. It seems to me that the normal occupation of Dutton generally is to sit and look at its neighbours—not with approving eyes."
"A common result of too little to do."
"And looking at them means talking about them. Things have always been so, I suppose; but after years away, one notices more. I have been in the thick of it all this week. Everybody does not wait, like you and Jean, for leave to call before Sunday. Perhaps I should not have given leave in some cases—" with a slight curl of her lip. "I have had any number of callers: and they all seem convinced that the one object of my coming home is to hear how badly the world has gone on in my absence. The Dutton world I mean."
"So long as they keep to generalities—" and a pause.
"They do not. It is all about individuals."