At that moment Mrs Brindley, miraculously fresh and smiling, entered the room.
'Wife,' said Mr Brindley, without giving her time to greet me, 'what do you think he's just asked me?'
'I don't know.'
'He's just asked me if Annie Brett was ever Simon Fuge's mistress.'
She sank into a chair.
'Annie BRETT?' She began to laugh gently. 'Oh! Mr Loring, you really are too funny!' She yielded to her emotions. It may be said that she laughed as they can laugh in the Five Towns. She cried. She had to wipe away the tears of laughter.
'What on earth made you think so?' she inquired, after recovery.
'I—had an idea,' I said lamely. 'He always made out that one of those two sisters was so much to him, and I knew it couldn't be Mrs Colclough.'
'Well,' she said, 'ask anybody down here, ANY-body! And see what they'll say.'
'No,' Mr Brindley put in, 'don't go about asking ANY-body. You might get yourself disliked. But you may take it it isn't true.'