Mrs. Ballantyne: I think we ought to send for the girl, and see if we can get anything out of her. Of course, it would be very trying and dreadful, but I’m sure that’s what we ought to do. I, for one, shouldn’t shrink from it.
Mrs. Lloyd-Evans: You wouldn’t get a word out of her. They were all in league together, it seemed to me. Thoroughly artful and determined to stick together, I thought them, all three of them.
Mrs. Akers: I can’t see why the grandmother should have any say in the matter at all. Pray what has she to do with it?
Mrs. Lloyd-Evans: She talked a great deal of nonsense about wanting to keep Fanny at home. As I said to her, if keeping Fanny at home results in this sort of thing, then the sooner Fanny goes away from home the better. She was thoroughly nonplussed at that, as you may imagine, and couldn’t answer anything at all, though of course she chattered away, but I took not the slightest notice.
Mrs. Ballantyne: But, Mrs. Lloyd-Evans, do you mean to say that they won’t tell who the man is?
Mrs. Lloyd-Evans: The girl won’t say a word. As I said to her myself, it must have been somebody in London before they came away, and it’s no use telling me it happened here, because I simply shan’t believe it.
Mrs. Akers: Well, what about a Home, or some other place where the girl could go till it’s all over? It had better be as far away from here as possible, of course.
The other two as before: Oh, of course.
Mrs. Akers: I have two or three addresses of that kind—one place is near London.
Mrs. Ballantyne: The very thing. I’d gladly take her up myself, if necessary. She’s very young and one doesn’t want to be hard on her. What line are the mother and grandmother taking up?