‘Couldn’t hear. I was in the other room. But I heard Yottle speaking your name.’
He had, in fact, heard a few words through the keyhole, but not enough to gather the sense of the conversation, which had been carried on in discreet tones.
‘There you are!’ Alice exclaimed, addressing her mother. ‘They’re plotting against us, you see.’
‘I don’t think it ‘ud be Dick’s wish to do you harm,’ said Mrs. Mutimer absently.
‘Dick ‘ll do whatever she tells him.’
‘Adela, eh?’ observed ‘Arry. ‘She’s a cat.’
‘You mind your own business!’ returned his sister.
‘So it is my business. She looked at me as if I wasn’t good enough to come near her ‘igh-and-mightiness. I’m glad to see her brought down a peg, chance it!’
Alice would not condescend to join her reprobate brother, even in abuse of Adela. She very shortly took leave of her mother, who went up to the door with her.
‘Are you going to see Dick?’ Mrs. Mutimer said, in the passage.