'You want to blaze out, mother, before you know that with any self-respect you can keep Winefred in the house.'
'Indeed!'
'Indeed, yes. I have received some information. I have an old school friend at Axminster, and I have inquired of her about the Holwoods.'
'Axminster is not Axmouth.'
'It is on the same river.'
'So are Pangborne and Tilbury. You do not inquire at one place relative to persons at the other. Besides, I will trouble you to mind your own business and not be so officious as to inquire into things that in no way concern you.'
'They do concern me, mamma. We have—or rather have not—this girl in the house, and she is involving you in soup-tureens and butlers.'
'I want to know nothing of what you have been inquiring after.'
'Of course you do not. After having spent something like ten or a dozen pounds on a tureen. But I will tell you, nevertheless. My friend says that there are no persons of the name of Holwood, that any one knows, in the county, and the name is not in the Court Directory. As to their country seat, it resolves itself into a castle in Spain.'