"I know she's made a mistake," replied the other in her even voice. "But it's not for you and me to judge her. You and I were able to marry the men we loved. If we hadn't been...."
"I should have stood up!" harshly.
"You can't say," said Mrs. Trupp, calm as the other was ferocious. "You don't know. We've never been tested." Then the devil entered into her as it does sometimes into the holiest of women, a naughty devil, very mischievous, who loathed Pharisaism and loved to persecute it.... "Besides, should we have been right to stand up?"
Anne Caspar gasped.
The lady wetted her cotton delicately, and threaded her needle against the dying light.
"It's a nice point," she added in her charming voice.
Anne tramped home, meeting Mr. Pigott on the hill. He stopped to speak to her, but she trudged on surlily.
"The world's gone mad," she said. "It's time it come to an end. It's a bad un."
Mr. Pigott went on to the Manor-house to put his question.
"Is she all right?" he asked—"This girl of Ernie's."