"Mamma is there."
"And George?" he asked in a sharp tone.
"And George,—at present."
"George is, I think, the biggest fool I ever came across in my life. He is so cowed by that man whose daughter he has married that he doesn't know how to call his soul his own."
"I don't think that, Brotherton. He never goes to the deanery to stay there."
"Then what makes him quarrel with me? He ought to know which side his bread is buttered."
"He had a great deal of money with her, you know."
"If he thinks his bread is buttered on that side, let him stick to that side and say so. I will regard none of my family as on friendly terms with me who associate with the Dean of Brotherton or his daughter after what took place up in London." Lady Alice felt this to be a distinct threat to herself, but she allowed it to pass by without notice. She was quite sure that the Canon would not quarrel with the Dean out of deference to his brother-in-law. "The fact is they should all have gone away as I told them, and especially when George had married the girl and got her money. It don't make much difference to me, but it will make a deal to him."
"How is Popenjoy, Brotherton?" asked Lady Alice, anxious to change the conversation.
"I don't know anything about him."