‘Well!’ and there was a whole sentence of pardon conveyed in the word. Then, after an interval, ‘Look at John and his neighbour.’
‘I have been trying to catch what they are saying.’
‘They! It is all on one side.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Violet, smiling, ‘it was something about chants.’
‘Yes. Is it not rare to see his polite face while she bores him with that kind of cant which is the most intolerable of all, and he quietly turning it aside?’
‘Is it cant when people are in earnest?’ asked Violet.
‘Women always think they are.’
‘How are they to know?’
‘If they hold their tongues’—a silence—Well!’
‘Well,’ said Violet.