"Well, I would. I'd tell any old lie to make them happy. I'd steal for them if they were hungry. I'd kill anybody who hurt them."
"I believe you would," said Eliot.
"We know who Anne would commit her crimes for."
"We don't. We don't know anything she doesn't want us to," said Eliot, shielding her from his mother's mischief.
"That's right, Eliot, stick up for her," said John. He knew what she was thinking of. "Would Jerrold commit a crime?" he said.
"Sooner than any of us. But not for the Indian Civil. He'd rob, butcher, lie himself black in the face for anything he really cared for."
"He would for Colin," said Anne.
"Rob? Butcher and lie?" Her father meditated.
"It sounds like Jerrold, doesn't it?" said Adeline. "Absurd children. Thank goodness they don't any of them know what they're talking about…. And here's tea."
Indoors the music stopped suddenly and Colin came out, ready.