"Need we form ourselves into a private enquiry office?" asked Mrs. Trupp quietly.
The old lady's eyes flashed. Mrs. Trupp of course didn't care. Mrs. Trupp never went to church. "Putting a premium on immorality!" she cried with bitter laughter—"as usual."
"We must look a little into character surely, Mrs. Lewknor," said a honied virgin from St. Michael's.
"I'll go bail for this woman's character," answered Mrs. Lewknor, flashing in her turn.
"I believe she is more respectable than she used to be," said a dull spinster with a dogged eye.
"Damn respectability," thought Mrs. Lewknor, but she said, "Are we to deprive this child of bread in the name of respectability? Whatever else she is she's a child of the Empire."
Then the Reverend Spink spoke. He and Lady Augusta Willcocks were there to represent the point of view of the Church.
He spoke quietly, his eyes down, and lips compressed, mock-meekly aware of the dramatic significance of his words.
"Perhaps I ought to tell the committee that the man this woman is now living with is not her husband."
The silence that greeted this announcement was all that the reverend gentleman could have desired. It was only broken by the loud triumphant cry of the Lady Augusta Willcocks.