"After all, she is no great loss," said Elfrida, with a sort of determination in her tone.
"She is a loss," said the curate, defying her valiantly, openly, and to her face. "She will be a loss to that poor son of hers, whom Heaven, in a wisdom unknown to us, has afflicted."
"Oh, you know everything," said Elfrida, with a shrug of her dainty shoulders. She almost turned her back on him. Lord Ambert came forward and whispered a word or two in her ear. She laughed. The curate fell back. Dicky, laying a hand upon his arm, drew him away from the group and into the shadow of some large tubs filled with shrubs.
Miss Firs-Robinson had been gaining a loose rein to her sympathetic tendencies. And to Mrs. Greatorex!
"A shocking affair! Poor dear creature! Rather—er— behindhand in some little ways; but such an end! Of course, Dr. Dillwyn has told you all the facts of the case, but the details, they are so interesting; but no doubt you've heard 'em."
Mrs. Greatorex, who would have given worlds to say she had, was so carried away by her desire to learn the smallest minutiae of the tragedy upon the spot that she gave way, and confessed that she knew little or nothing of the terrible affair. She made the handsome admission with quite an air, however. She did it admirably, but she played rather above the head of her companion, who did not understand her in the least.
"Law, my dear, how out of the world you are!" said that worthy, with a patronising smile that filled the soul of Mrs. Greatorex with wrath. "Well, I keep my eyes open and my ears too, and now I'll tell you."
Mrs. Greatorex made a movement as if to crush her with a well-applied word or two, but she checked herself. If she offended old Miss Firs-Robinson, she would learn nothing about Mrs. Darkham's accident. If she endured her in silence, all the gossip of the neighbourhood would be hers in five minutes. And five minutes was not long to endure any one. Dr. Dillwyn had been vague, and too much taken up with Agatha (she would have to put an end to that presently) to tell her anything worth hearing, and so she had heard nothing beyond the mere fact of the fall.
"Yes?" said she carefully.
Tea had been brought out by one of the small maids, who had now ceased from her trembling, and Mrs. Greatorex stood up to pour it out.