"Well, I shan't in your hearing."
And with this speech came a silence.
"I don't think, somehow, that Cleve is as frank with me as he used to be. Can you imagine any reason?" said Tom, after an interval.
"I? No, upon my word—unless you are as frank to him about his uncle, as you have been with me."
"Well, I'm not. I never spoke to him about his uncle. But Shrapnell, who tells me all the news of Cardyllian while I'm away"—this was pointedly spoken—"said, I thought, that he had not been down here ever since the Malory people left, and I find that he was here for a week—at least at Ware—last autumn, for a fortnight; and he never told me, though he knew, for I said so to him, that I thought that he had stayed away; and I think that was very odd."
"He may have thought that he was not bound to account to you for his time and movements," said Miss Agnes.
"Well, he was here; Mrs. Jones was good enough to tell me so, though other people make a secret of it. You saw him here, I dare say."
"Yes, he was here, for a few days. I think in October, or the end of September."
"Oh! thank you. But, as I said, I had heard that already from Mrs. Jones, who is a most inconvenient gossip upon nearly all subjects."
"I rather like Mrs. Jones; you mean the 'draper,' as we call her? and if Mr. Verney is not as communicative as you would have him, I really can't help it. I can only assure you, for your comfort, that the mysterious tenants of Malory had disappeared long before that visit."