"Of course, of course."
"It's a thing that's rather difficult to speak of at all, but, of course, you know Mr. Easter's circumstances as well as I do. He is a married man."
Alderman Bellew, looking more astounded than ever, gave a breathless nod of assent.
"And also," said Edna, smiling a little, "he happens to be an extremely attractive person. Consequently, when a young—a fairly young—woman spends her Saturday afternoons typing at the estate office, and then has herself escorted home afterwards, and keeps all her civility, and all her smiles, and all her conversation, for one particular person—well, one is inclined to wonder a little, that's all."
"Bless my soul!" ejaculated the astonished Alderman.
Edna suddenly became grave.
"You understand that I'm not, for one single instant, hinting at any sort or kind of—of understanding or flirtation between them. I know Mark, I suppose, better than anybody else on earth knows him, and I trust him absolutely. But I needn't tell you—a man is a man."
"Of course," said the Alderman portentously, as one resolved to rise to the occasion, "we really know very little about her. I suppose you mean the Lady Superintendent?"
"Yes, poor Miss Marchrose. Don't think that I would willingly say an unkind word about her, for indeed I could never cast the first stone. But I've been uneasy for some time, and this afternoon it gave me a little shock to see something—oh, never mind what! A straw very often shows which way the wind blows."
Having by this reticence left the simple-minded Alderman to infer the existence of a whole truss of straw at the very least, Lady Rossiter leant back and closed her eyes, as though in weary retrospect.