‘There was great blame!’ Dora exclaimed. ‘She behaved shamefully!
I wouldn’t speak to her; I wouldn’t sit down in her company!’
‘Bosh! What do you know about it? Wait till you are married to a man like Reardon, and reduced to utter penury.’
‘Whoever my husband was, I would stand by him, if I starved to death.’
‘If he ill-used you?’
‘I am not talking of such cases. Mrs Reardon had never anything of the kind to fear. It was impossible for a man such as her husband to behave harshly. Her conduct was cowardly, faithless, unwomanly!’
‘Trust one woman for thinking the worst of another,’ observed Jasper with something like a sneer.
Dora gave him a look of strong disapproval; one might have suspected that brother and sister had before this fallen into disagreement on the delicate topic. Whelpdale felt obliged to interpose, and had of course no choice but to support the girl.
‘I can only say,’ he remarked with a smile, ‘that Miss Dora takes a very noble point of view. One feels that a wife ought to be staunch. But it’s so very unsafe to discuss matters in which one cannot know all the facts.’
‘We know quite enough of the facts,’ said Dora, with delightful pertinacity.