“Why should I hush? Everybody knows that’s true, except of course Uncle Robert. Aunt is always ill-tempered when she’s left alone with him.”
Rhoda kept frowning and looking at Caryl, in the endeavour to stop the rash young man. At last she got up, and beckoned to George to follow her to the window, while Minnie remained with the boy.
“You really mustn’t talk like that about Lady Sarah, and especially before Caryl,” she said.
“Oh, well, there’s no harm in what I said. As for Aunt’s ill-temper, the poor little beggar must have noticed it himself. And as for my speaking about her flirtation with Jack Rotherfield, everybody knows all about that. It’s gone on for ever so long. That’s why nobody notices it, except, of course, Minnie and me.”
“I don’t think you ought to talk like that. Sir Robert would be very angry if he were to hear you.”
“No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t believe it, you know.”
“I’m quite sure it would annoy him very much if he were to hear the way you talk.”
“But he won’t hear it. Bless your heart, do you think I don’t know that it’s only a safety-valve for Aunt?” said George with the air of an astute critic. “If it were not for Jack Rotherfield’s visits, she’d sling her hook altogether.”
“Oh, hush!”
“She would, I tell you. Even my grandmother knows it. That’s why I call him a safety-valve.”