“He is quite right,” said Mrs Gridley. “And I daresay, young Roxbury would not be a great acquisition to the firm, though his father’s money might. However, some of that may be got in a more agreeable way. Mr Millar is doing his best, they say. But, Amy Roxbury is little more than a child. Still some very foolish marriages seem to turn out very well. Am I not to see Mrs Elliott, to-day? She is a very devoted mother, it seems.”
“She would have been happy to see you, if she had been at home.”
“And she is quite well again? What a relief it must be to you,” said Mrs Gridley, amiably. “And you are all quite happy together! I thought you were going to stay at the West, Rose?”
“I could not be spared any longer; they could not do without me.”
“And are you going to keep house for Harry, at Elphinstone house, or is Mr Millar to have that?”
And so on, till she was tired, at last, and went away.
“What nonsense that woman talks, to be sure!” said Rose.
“Worse than nonsense, I am afraid, sometimes,” said Graeme. “Really, Harry’s terror of her is not surprising. Nobody seems safe from her tongue.”
“But don’t let us lose our walk, altogether. We have time to go round the square, at any rate. It is not late,” said Rose.
They went out, leaving, or seeming to leave, all thought of Mrs Gridley and her news behind them. They met Fanny returning home, before they had gone far down the street.