"Well," said Mrs. Pruitt. "I have been thinking. She's a friend of yours, a good friend, although you might not have known it."
"It is news to me—that is, directly."
"Well, she is, and has been very much wrought up over the Reverend's treatment of you."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, it is so. You see, moreover, she is a distant relation of Mrs. McCarthy's, and is fairly well-to-do."
"So I have understood."
"Yes, they are, and McCarthys sort of look up to them."
"Yes?"
"Mrs. Merley is independent, and hasn't much patience with the Elder."
"So."