Then she recovered enough to take reprisals.
"Alf's their landlord, now," she cried after him, the snakes in her eyes darting dreadful laughter.
Edward Caspar turned in the door.
"Anne," he said, "I wish you to pay Ruth's rent in future out of the money my father left you."
The voice was mild but there was a note of authority, firm if faint, running through it.
Anne rose grimly to her feet, thin as a stiletto, and almost as formidable.
"That woman!"
He nodded at her down the passage.
"My daughter."
Anne turned full face.