That sharp reply caught the ears of all, and Soames moved uneasily on his thin green chair.
"Well, I don't know, I think they want their own small way, and I think they always did."
"Indeed!"
"Oh, but—Prosper," Winifred interjected comfortably, "the girls in the streets—the girls who've been in munitions, the little flappers in the shops; their manners now really quite hit you in the eye."
At the word "hit" Jack Cardigan stopped his disquisition; and in the silence Monsieur Profond said:
"It was inside before, now it's outside; that's all."
"But their morals!" cried Imogen.
"Just as moral as they ever were, Mrs. Cardigan, but they've got more opportunity."
The saying, so cryptically cynical, received a little laugh from Imogen, a slight opening of Jack Cardigan's mouth, and another creak from Soames' chair.
Winifred said: "That's too bad, Prosper."