In Helen's bedroom, amid her wardrobe, there was no chance of dangerous topics, the attention being monopolised by one subject, and that a safe one.
At last they went out together, two models of style and deportment, and Helen pulled to the great front door with a loud echoing clang.
"Fancy that place being all empty. Aren't you afraid of sleeping there while your uncle is away?"
"No," said Helen. "But I should be afraid if Georgiana wasn't afraid."
After this example of courageous introspection, a silence fell upon the pair; the silence held firm while they got out of the grounds and crossed Oldcastle-road, and took to the Alls field-path, from which a unique panorama of Bursley—chimneys, kilns, canals, railways, and smoke-pall—is to be obtained. Helen was determined not to break the silence. And then came the moment when Sarah Swetnam could no longer suffer the silence; and she began, very cautiously:
"I suppose you've heard all about Andrew and Emanuel Prockter?"
Helen perceived that she had not been mistaken, and that the scene was at hand. "No," said she. "What about them?"
"You don't mean to say you've not heard?"
"No. What about?"
"The quarrel between those two?"