Martha opened her eyes in unfeigned surprise.
"That's a funny way for you to talk, mother. You always say people have no right to go gossiping around about girls!"
"Well, I certainly said girls oughtn't to do silly things to start people talking."
"I get sick of this town! It's only in a little crude hole of a place like this a girl can't look at a man after he's married. He knows more in a minute than all the boys in this place know in a year. And just because he's got a wife I'm not to listen to him, I suppose!"
"You are certainly not to—to let him spend all his time with you. You went with Johnnie. Why didn't you come home with him? Did you know that he—this Quin person—was to be there, Martha?"
Martha stood there looking straight at her mother, as if she had seen in her something new and perplexing.
"What's the matter, mother? What's all the fuss about, anyway?"
"About this man. He's married. He oughtn't to be following you about when his wife's at home sick. I'm disgusted with you, Martha."
"Because he happens to be married?"
"He doesn't happen to be married; he is married."