"Do you?"
"I don't know. Don't you?"
"The only hell I know is the jealous anger in a plain woman's heart. Of course there are others. You've only to dip into history to read of the hells that kings and priests, mostly priests, have made of this earth."
"What about Providence?" asked Mavis.
"Don't talk that 'tosh' to me," cried Miss Toombs vehemently.
"But is it 'tosh'?"
"If I were to give you a list of even the few things I've read about, the awful, cruel, blood-thirsty, wicked doings, it would make your blood boil at the injustice, the wantonness of it all. Read how the Spaniards treated the Netherlanders once upon a time, the internal history of Russia, the story of Red Rubber, loads of things, and over and over again you'd ask, 'What was God doing to allow such unnecessary torture?'"
Miss Toombs paused for breath. Seeing Mavis looking at her with open-mouthed astonishment, she said:
"Have I astonished you?"
"You have."