"Oh, it was another quarrel yesterday morning at breakfast and with Harper, the butler, hearing every word. He said it was the worst they'd ever had. He's a self-respecting, high-class servant and was shocked."
"Sylvia and the Doctor again?"
"Yes, and poor Mrs. Fowler crying behind the coffee pot."
"The same old subject?"
"Oh, of course. It's young Reddy this time. Sylvia's been out a good deal this autumn in her car; several times she's been gone nearly the whole day. When the Doctor questioned her she'd either be evasive or sulky. On Friday someone told him they'd seen her far up on the turnpike with Jack Reddy in his racer."
I fired up, I couldn't help it.
"Why should he be mad about that? Isn't Mr. Reddy good enough for her?"
"I think he is. I told you before I thought the best thing she could do would be to marry him. But——" she looked round to see that no one was coming in——"don't say a word of what I'm going to tell you. I have no right to repeat what I hear as an employee but I'm worried and don't know what's the best thing to do. Mrs. Fowler has as good as told me that her husband's lost all his money and it's Sylvia's that's running Mapleshade. And what I think is that the Doctor doesn't want her to marry anyone. It isn't her he minds losing; it's thirty thousand a year."
"But when she comes of age she can do what she wants and if he makes it so disagreeable she won't want to live there."
"That's two years off yet. He may recoup himself in that time."