To emphasize the last word Mrs. Tice snapped off a piece of thread, and looked up at Dora with a sharp nod. Evidently Joad had failed to impress her favourably.
"I have no doubt you are right," said Dora, after reflection. "He would be dangerous if he got the chance, but I don't see where his opportunity for mischief comes in."
"Neither do I, Miss Carew; but he'll watch for one, you mark my words."
Dora did not reply to this remark, as she was of the same opinion herself. She was thinking about Carver's remark touching a past romance of Edermont's, and of her own statement to Allen that Mrs. Tice might have been the woman who had to do with the same. It was now her desire to find out if there was any grain of truth in her supposition, but she did not know exactly how to put it to Mrs. Tice. At last she thought the best method to approach so delicate a subject was by a side issue.
"Your husband is dead, isn't he, Mrs. Tice?" she asked with apparent carelessness.
"Yes, Miss Carew," replied the housekeeper; "he died more than twenty-five years ago, and his body is buried in the graveyard of Christchurch Priory."
"Were you much in love with him?"
"We respected and liked one another," said Mrs. Tice judiciously: "but we were not madly in love."
"Were you ever madly in love with anyone, Mrs. Tice?"
"No, my dear young lady," was the laughing reply, "never! I am not a romantic person."