"She may be very nice for all I know."
"I think," said Anne, "she wouldn't call if she wasn't nice, you know."
She meant that if Mrs. Lawson Hannay hadn't been nice Walter would never have sanctioned her calling.
"Oh, as for that," said her friend, "you know what Scale is. The less nice they are the more they keep on calling. But I should think"—she had suddenly perceived where Anne's argument was tending—"she is probably all right."
"Do you know anything of Mr. Charlie Gorst?"
"No. But Johnson does. At least I'm sure he's met him."
Mrs. Eliott saw it all. Poor Anne was being besieged, bombarded by her husband's set.
"Then he isn't impossible?"
"Oh no, the Gorsts are a very old Lincolnshire family. Quite grand. What a number of people you're going to know, my dear. But, your husband isn't to take you away from all your old friends."
"He isn't taking me anywhere. I shall stay," said Anne proudly, "exactly where I was before."