"Oh, I am of an uncharitable nature, and I am ready to see something sinister in anything and everything. I don't want to sow seeds of distrust in your mind, but I'm rather anxious to overlook no possible agency."
"I can't believe it is anything more than vulgar curiosity," said Leslie, after a thoughtful pause. "You know people of that sort have so little to occupy their minds that they become inordinately curious about the personal doings and sayings of the people they live among. I don't suppose a delivery wagon goes by in the street that Mrs. Bussey does not know about it, and speculate as to where it is going and what it is going to deliver at whose house. If she were not so curious about everything, I might feel that this was a more serious matter. But--she is so inefficient! I can't imagine her a mysterious conspirator!"
"Well, let's forget her. Won't you play some more for me?"
"I'd rather talk," she said. "There are some things I want to ask you."
"That pleases me still better."
"I want you to tell me about Philip's mother."
"Very well," he said, but the eagerness had faded out of his voice. "What in particular?"
"You are a great friend of hers, are you not?"
"Yes,--an old friend."
"It was to please her, rather than Philip, that you came here?"