“Oh, Auntie!” exclaimed Bates, truly pained at this. “Don’t talk so!”
“What right have you got to dictate to me? You keep still, too, Rick,—in fact, the least we any of us say, the better.”
“Oh, no, Miss Prall,” said Gibbs, suavely, “if there’s anything you know, it will really be better for all concerned that you should tell it. As to your opinions or ideas or theories, I hold you quite excusable if you keep those to yourselves.”
“And you’d prefer I should do so, I suppose! Well, I will. And as to facts, I know of none that could help you, so I will say nothing.”
“Miss Gurney,” and Gibbs turned toward her with a determined glance, “you spoke of the young women employed in the house; had you any one in mind?”
“Eliza——” began Miss Prall, but Gibbs stopped her.
“Beg pardon, ma’am, but I must request that you let Miss Gurney speak for herself. You have no right to forbid her, and I insist upon my right to ask.”
“Nobody in particular,” Miss Gurney asserted, as she looked timidly at Letitia. “But Sir Herbert’s chambermaid,——”
“Yes, go on.”
“Well, she refused to take care of his room, he was so cross to her. But I don’t suppose she’d kill him just for that.”