"I suppose there has been some agreement," said Dorothy.
"Just so; just so," said Arabella, the meek. "I should like to see her. They say that she is very beautiful; don't they?"
"My brother says that she is handsome."
"Exceedingly lovely, I'm told," said Camilla. "I should like to see her,—shouldn't you, Mr. Gibson?"
"I always like to see a pretty woman," said Mr. Gibson, with a polite bow, which the sisters shared between them.
"I suppose she'll go to church," said Camilla.
"Very likely not," said Arabella. "Ladies of that sort very often don't go to church. I dare say you'll find that she'll never stir out of the place at all, and that not a soul in Nuncombe will ever see her except the gardener. It is such a thing for a woman to be separated from her husband! Don't you think so, Mr. Gibson?"
"Of course it is," said he, with a shake of his head, which was intended to imply that the censure of the church must of course attend any sundering of those whom the church had bound together; but which implied also by the absence from it of any intense clerical severity, that as the separated wife was allowed to live with so very respectable a lady as Mrs. Stanbury, there must probably be some mitigating circumstances attending this special separation.
"I wonder what he is like?" said Camilla, after a pause.
"Who?" asked Arabella.