“Did you see that article by Willis Rice Hope, in the Excelsior?” suddenly snarled the Judge, to his hostess.
“I did. I thought it very sensible.”
“The only sensible thing that’s been said about these Agrarian Laws. Sensible! I should think so. Why Rice Hope came to me, and I put him up to a few things. But his article says everything, doesn’t miss an item of importance.”
“Quite!” said Mrs Norris, with rather stony attention. “If only saying would alter things, Judge Burlap.”
“Saying the wrong thing has done all the mischief!” snapped the Judge. “Fellows like Garfield Spence coming down here and talking a lot of criminal talk. Why the town’s full of Socialists and Sinvergüenzas from New York.”
Mrs Norris adjusted her pince-nez.
“Fortunately,” she said, “they don’t come out to Tlacolula, so we needn’t think about them. Mrs Henry, let me give you some more tea.”
“Do you read Spanish?” the Judge spat out, at Owen. Owen, in his big shell spectacles, was evidently a red rag to his irritable fellow-countryman.
“No!” said Owen, round as a cannon-shot.
Mrs Norris once more adjusted her eye-glasses.