"A good thing? Of course it would be a good thing. Don't you think so yourself?"
"Oh, I don't know. I like her all right. Rather rum to have her as a sort of mother, though."
"Nobody thinks anything of that now-a-days. She'd be more like a sort of sister. I must say I shouldn't mind having her about the place, if it was me. She's a very fine woman. I spotted her three seasons ago, when she first began to hunt again after Carruthers died. If I hadn't felt myself a bit tied up with Kate Pemberton then, I think I might have tried to make myself pleasant to her. Well, I always have made myself pleasant to her. I think she likes me all right. If she marries your Governor we shall be pretty near neighbours."
"Well, I hope you won't try to cut him out, if he wants to marry her. I don't quite know what to think about it. I shall tell Barbara that it would be a good thing."
"Yes, I should, if I were you. And you can tell her that I'm all in favour of it, as she has asked what I think."
"Thanks, I will," said Young George. "That ought to settle her mind, if anything can. I say, I haven't told you. B's going to have a baby."
"By Jove!" said Jimmy. "It seems no time since B was almost a kid. Makes you feel you're getting on, that sort of thing, eh? Poor little girl! I suppose she's pleased enough about it though, isn't she? They generally are."
"Oh, yes, she's pleased enough."
"Made up her mind it's going to be a boy, of course."
"Well, she does want it to be a boy. How did you know that?"