"It's the best receipt for eels in the three kingdoms," spoke Mrs. Bent with pride. "It was my mother's before me."
"Will you step across for it now, Miss Ethel?"
"Not now: as I come back. I am going up the cliff."
"To that Nancy Gleeson's, I suppose," cried Mrs. Bent in her free manner. "She does not deserve it. If I had twenty children about me, I'll be bound not one of 'em should ever set itself alight in my presence."
"Not there," said Ethel slightly laughing at Mrs. Bent's tartness. "I am taking a message from mamma to Jane Hallet."
"I hope it is to warn her not to make herself so free with Mr. Harry," cried Mrs. Bent, speaking on the moment's impulse. Had she taken time for thought she would not have said it.
"Warn her not to make herself so free with Mr. Harry!" repeated Ethel, somewhat haughtily. "Why, Mrs. Bent what can you mean?"
"Well, I have seen them walking together after nightfall," said Mrs. Bent, unable to eat her words.
"They may have met accidentally," returned Ethel after a pause.
"Oh, of course, they may," assented Mrs. Bent in a significant tone.