She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I never knew anyone's eyes capable of turning back so far. "Like a halibut's," I murmured. They instantly became straight.
"What did you say, mum?"
"Nothing," I replied gently. "I sometimes think aloud."
"Yes," she said, in a tone which suggested she wished I wouldn't.
"Is he a sanitary inspector, mum?"
"Who?"
"The gentleman who's doin' the drains."
"No, certainly not. He's one of the greatest and cleverest men in England, and—he killed his mother."
Amelia looked incredulous.
"He'd have been hung if he'd done that, mum—hung by the neck till he was dead."