Miss Sinquier clasped her hands.
“One has heard of them often, of course.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Mary have won repute throughout the realm,” Mrs. Sixsmith impressively said, wondering (as middlewoman) what commission she should ask.
“Mrs. Mary, I dare say, is no longer what she was!”
“Mrs. Mary, aujourd’hui, is a trifle, perhaps, full-blown, but she’s most magnetic still. And a warmer, quicker heart never beat in any breast.”
“In her heyday, Sir Oliver—but you wouldn’t have seen her, of course.”
The baronet’s eyes grew extinct.
“In my younger days,” he said, “she was comeliness itself ... full of fun. I well recall her as the ‘wife’ in Macbeth; I assure you she was positively roguish.”
“Being fairly on now in years,” Miss Sinquier reflected, “she naturally wouldn’t fill very juvenile parts—which would be a blessing.”
“She too often does.”