"How about Jerrold's danger? You might think of him."
"I do think of him. And I trust him. Absolutely."
"I don't. I don't trust anybody absolutely."
"One thing's clear," said Maisie, "that it's time we had tea."
She got up, with an annihilating dignity, and rang the bell. Adeline's smile intimated that she was unbeaten and unconvinced.
That evening John Severn came into his wife's room as she was dressing for dinner.
"I wish to goodness Anne hadn't this craze for farming," he said. "She's simply working herself to death. I never saw her look so seedy. I'm sorry Jerrold let her have that farm."
"So am I," said Adeline. "I never saw Jerry look so seedy, either. Maisie's been behaving like a perfect idiot. If she wanted them to go off together she couldn't have done better."
"You don't imagine," John said, "that's what they're after?"
"How do I know what they're after? You never can tell with people like Jerrold and Anne. They're both utterly reckless. They don't care who suffers so long as they get what they want. If Anne had the morals of a—of a mouse, she'd clear out."