"'A perfect scandal, child. The suppers those young men give there!'"
"Oh," cried Strelsa, distressed, "surely you have been misinformed!"
"Not in the least," wheezed the old lady. "She is no better than the rest of 'em! And I sent for my nephew Karl, and I brought him up roundly. 'Karl!' said I, 'what the devil do you mean! Do you want that husband of hers dragging you all into court?' And, do you know, my dear, he appeared perfectly astounded—said it wasn't so—just as you said a moment ago. But I can put two and two together, yet; I'm not too old and witless to do that! And I warrant you I gave him a tongue trouncing which he won't forget. ... Probably he retailed it to that O'Hara man, and to young Quarren, too. If he did it won't hurt 'em, either."
She was speaking now so generally that everybody heard her, and Cyrille Caldera said:
"Ricky is certainly innocuous, anyway."
"Oh, is he!" said Mrs. Sprowl with another wheezy laugh. "I fancy I know that boy. Did you say 'harmless,' Susanne? Well, you ought to know, of course——"
Cyrille Caldera blushed brightly although her affair with Quarren had been of the most innocent description.
"There's probably as much ground for indicting Ricky as there is for indicting me," she protested. "He's merely a nice, useful boy——"
"Rather vapid, don't you think?" observed a thin young woman in sables and an abundance of front teeth.