'But—she said nothing about this to me. It is very odd.'
'It is, as you say, odd. It is, of course, possible that Janet may have had something to do with it, but I cannot say; your mother will not enlighten me.'
'I cannot understand this,' said Salome musingly.
'I regret my offer,' said Philip. 'I would not have made it if I had not thought I should be met with candour, and given the information I desired.'
When Mrs. Sidebottom heard that the marriage had actually taken place, then her moral sense reared like a cob unaccustomed to the curb.
'It is a scandal!' she exclaimed, 'and so shortly after my sweet brother's death. A bagman's daughter, too!'
'Uncle Jeremiah died in November,' said the captain.
'Well, and this is March. To marry a bagman's daughter in March! It is a scandal, an outrage on the family.'
'My uncle would have had no objections, I suppose. Philip is as good as Mr. Baynes.'
'As good! How you talk, Lamb! as if all the brains in your skull had gone to water. Philip is a Pennycomequick, and Baynes is—of course, a Baynes.'