“In certain circles!” Mrs. Dyckman was like a terrified echo. She had known of such appalling misalliances that there was no telling how far her son might have descended.
Old Dyckman snarled, “Do you mean that you've gone slumming for a wife?”
Jim dared not answer this. His mother ignored it, too. But her thoughts were in a panic.
“What circles is she famous in, your wife, for her beauty?”
Jim could not achieve the awful word “movies” at the moment. He prowled round it.
“In professional circles.”
“Oh, an actress, then?”
“Well, sort of.”
“They call everything an actress nowadays. She isn't a—a chorus-girl or a show-girl?”
“Lord, no!” His indignation was reassuring to a degree.