"Whisht, can't ye! You fair deafen a body, Eliza!" he flung out. "What's all this stir about Geordie coming back?"
"It's a lie, that's what it is!" Eliza exploded again, and again he silenced her with an angry "Whisht!" He kept his eyes on her a moment longer, as if daring her to speak, and then let them travel slowly and almost reluctantly to his wife's face. He opened his lips to address her and then changed his mind, turning instead to the crew beyond the door.
"Tell me about it, can't you?" he demanded angrily. "One o' you speak up! Emily Marion--Addison--you wi' the fat face!" He jerked a contemptuous thumb at Elliman, who went crimson with extreme disgust. "One o' you tell me the meaning o' this precious hullaballoo!"
Elliman looked across to Sally for help, but did not get it. Instead, she turned her eyes away, ignoring his appeal.
"It's hardly my place to enlighten you, sir," he said, with an offended shrug, "but I don't mind telling you the little I know. Apparently your son Geordie is expected soon, and with a fat purse in his pocket to buy him a welcome home."
"Geordie's coming back, d'ye say?" Simon stared at him with bewildered eyes.
"So Mrs. Thornthwaite has given us to understand."
"And wi' brass? Plenty o' brass? Geordie wi' brass?"
"Enough and to spare, if all we're told is true."
"Ay, but that's just what it isn't!" Eliza broke out on a peacock scream, and this time Will actually shook her into silence. The poignancy of the moment had hushed the rest of the audience into complete quiet. There was no sound in the room but Eliza's breathing as Simon turned again to look at his wife.