“Probably had a date in the city for a theater or something,” Mason said. “Perhaps she was meeting her husband... I take it her husband wasn’t with her.”
“No. I believe he’s out somewhere looking for work — he comes and goes. She spent the weekend with him somewhere I know, because I had to keep the parrot for her.”
“Her husband’s out of work?” Mason asked.
“Yes.”
“Quite a few people are these days,” Mason told her, “but I suppose a young man who has plenty of vitality and stick-to-it-iveness can...”
“But he isn’t young,” Mrs. Winters interrupted, with the air of one who could be led to say more if properly encouraged.
“Why, I gathered she was a young woman,” Mason said. “Of course, I haven’t met her personally, but...”
“Well, it depends on what you call young. She’s in the early thirties. The man she married must be twenty years older than she is. I guess he’s steady enough and nice enough and all that, but what in the world a young woman wants to go and tie herself up for, with a man old enough to be her father... There, I mustn’t go gossiping. I suppose it’s none of my business. After all, she married him, I didn’t. I made up my mind when she introduced him to me that I wasn’t going to say a word to her about his age. I figure it’s just none of my business, and I’m a great body to mind my own business... May I ask what you want to see Mrs. Wallman about?”
Mason said, “I wanted to see Mrs. Wallman, but I also wanted to see her husband. You don’t know where I could reach him, do you?”
Her eyes glittered with suspicion. “I thought,” she said, “you didn’t know she was married.”