GLADYS. 'Tis a shame! And I know something. Mrs. Strangway's at Durford.
CONNIE. She's—never!
GLADYS. I saw her yesterday. An' if she's there she ought to be here. I told mother, an' she said: "Yu mind yer business." An' when she goes in to market to-morrow she'm goin' to see. An' if she's really there, mother says, 'tis a fine tu-du an' a praaper scandal. So I know a lot more'n yu du.
[Ivy stares at her.]
CONNIE. Mrs. Strangway told mother she was goin' to France for the winter because her mother was ill.
GLADYS. 'Tisn't, winter now—Ascension Day. I saw her cumin' out o' Dr. Desert's house. I know 'twas her because she had on a blue dress an' a proud luke. Mother says the doctor come over here tu often before Mrs. Strangway went away, just afore Christmas. They was old sweethearts before she married Mr. Strangway. [To Ivy] 'Twas yure mother told mother that.
[Ivy gazes at them more and more wide-eyed.]
CONNIE. Father says if Mrs. Bradmere an' the old Rector knew about the doctor, they wouldn't 'ave Mr. Strangway 'ere for curate any longer; because mother says it takes more'n a year for a gude wife to leave her 'usband, an' 'e so fond of her. But 'tisn't no business of ours, father says.
GLADYS. Mother says so tu. She's praaper set against gossip. She'll know all about it to-morrow after market.
IVY. [Stamping her foot] I don't want to 'ear nothin' at all; I don't, an' I won't.