Sid's was, 'I heard of a man whose wife took to talking about politics, and he hung his coat to one peg in her wardrobe and his trousers to another, and he said, 'Now, Eliza, which will you wear?'
It was apparently the combination of this anecdote and Evie's remark before it that broke Miss Simon down. She suddenly collapsed into indignant tears. Every one was uncomfortable. Mrs. Frampton said kindly, 'Come, come, my dear, it's only talk. It isn't worth crying about, I'm sure, with so many real troubles in the world just now.'
'You won't see,' sobbed Miss Simon, who looked particularly plain when crying. 'You none of you see. Except her'—she indicated Alix—'and she won't talk; she only smiles to herself at all of us. You tell silly tales, and you say silly things, and you think you've scored—but you haven't. It isn't argument, that you like men more than women or women more than men. And that man married to Eliza was an idiot, and not a bit funny or clever, and you all think he scored over her.'
'Well, really,' said Sid, and grinned sheepishly at the others.
Kate had fetched a glass of water. 'Drink some,' she said kindly. 'It'll make you feel better.' But Miss Simon pushed it aside and mopped her eyes and blew her nose and pulled herself together.
2
'Fancy crying before every one,' thought Evie. 'And just from being in a passion about getting the worst of it in talk. She is a specimen.'
'The boys shouldn't draw Rachel on to make such a silly of herself,' thought young Mrs. Vinney.
'Poor girl, she must have been working too hard, she's quite hysterical,' thought Mrs. Frampton.
'Having her staying with them must draw Vin and Floss very close together,' thought Kate, who had loved Vin long before Floss met him.