"At any rate, no one will deny that May Mappin is still throwing herself at his head. Isn't that so, Mr. Abinger? You practically live with him and should know."
Abinger's answers were as various as Mrs. Portal's sandwiches, and as liberally supplied with mustard.
1. Yes; but he didn't live with Miss Mappin.
2. Carson had not asked his advice about the best place to spend a honeymoon.
3. Miss Mappin had not told him that she loved Carson.
4. He did not read Carson's letters.
5. He could not swear that Carson was not already married.
6. All women were in love with Carson, anyway.
At that, Mrs. Gruyère sat back satisfied.
"I knew it," she said triumphantly, "and no good can come of it." She made a hollow in her lap for her cup of tea and began rolling her veil into a thick, black stole across the end of her nose.
No one was quite sure what she meant, and no one particularly cared, but Mrs. Portal thought it quite time poor silly May Mappin was left alone. Mrs. Portal talked scandal herself and enjoyed it, but she didn't backbite, which is the difference between good and ill nature.
"You ask too much, Mrs. Gruyère," said she, sipping tea from her blue cup, delicately as a bee sips honey from a bluebell. "When you are in love with a man like Evelyn Carson, the only thing you can do is to pray with fasting and tears that no bad may come of it."
"When I am in love!" said Mrs. Gruyère loudly.
"Oh!" cried Mrs. Lace with a shocked little laugh.
"Isn't it true, Mr. Abinger?" Clem asked.