Staffer mastered his impatience, for his sister sometimes baffled him, and there was a matter of importance about which he wished to sound her.
"I'm sorry you seem to have a prejudice against Williamson. Is it only on Dick's account?"
"No; I feel that he may bring trouble to us all. We were happier before his visits began. There is a difference now at Appleyard, and I don't like mystery. Why does he call himself Williamson?"
"Ah! You imagine it is not his name?"
"I have known for some time that it is not."
Staffer felt disturbed. His sister had been shrewder than he expected, and he wondered whether anybody else shared her suspicions; but her statement gave him the lead he wanted.
"Well," he said, "I dare say you can see that to use his proper name just now might make things unpleasant for him."
"He did not use it when he first came here, and nobody would have minded it then."
"I'm not certain; these Scots are prejudiced against foreigners; but it's hard to see why you should dislike the man because he is one of us." He paused and looked at her reproachfully. "Have you forgotten the people you belong to, Gretchen, and where you were born?"
Mrs. Woodhouse's face was troubled, but there was a hint of firmness in her voice as she answered.