It was a fiction with Mrs. Parry that she never interfered with other people's business, whereas there was not a pie within miles into which she had not thrust her finger. But he knew how to start her tongue.
"The Morleys, what about them?"
"No change, Ware. The Tricolor has gone to school—I mean the three children—although I can't get out of the habit of calling them by that ridiculous name. Mrs. Morley is as dismal as ever, and seems to miss Anne very much."
"As well she might. Anne was a good friend to her. And Morley?"
"He has found a new friend," said Mrs. Parry triumphantly, "a man called Franklin."
"George Franklin!" cried Ware, startled, for he had heard all about the fortune from Steel. "He is the man who inherited the five thousand a year that Powell left to Daisy. Steel, the detective, told me, and, now I think of it, Morley told me himself when I was ill."
"It's the same man, Ware. He has been here two months, and has taken the Priory."
"That's a cheerful place," said Giles. "Why, it has been standing empty for three years."
"I know. The last tenants left because they said it was haunted."
"Rubbish! And by what?"