"It would seem as though they were."
Mrs. Holman detected something in her husband's tone.
"What do you mean? Aren't they going to hang him?"
"Did I say they weren't going to hang him? Didn't I say it seems as though they were. Don't you understand Queen's English?"
Mrs. Holman was silent for a second or two.
"Surely they're not getting up a petition to let him off?"
"I've heard nothing at all about it, if they are. But perhaps you've heard more than me. You do sometimes, don't you?"
"You don't mean to say that you don't believe he did it. I thought you were sure that he was guilty."
"I've been sure of a good many things in my time, and been sorry for it afterwards. I'm not the only leather-headed fool there is about, as perhaps you know."
Mrs. Holman was skilled in the inflections of her husband's voice. She perceived that it would be wiser, temporarily, to keep her curiosity in her pocket, and to allow him to finish his meal in peace, which she did and obtained her reward.