"No doubt, dear! Phœbe, don't hunch your shoulders."
"Come, Bess, be a little sorry for the poor chap! I don't believe it's his fault."
"Oh, I dare say not! I know nothing about it. And I don't want to know anything about people of that sort."
"What sort?"
"You know what I mean, Athel. Literary, freethinking sort of people. Them and their wives!"
"I know quite well what you mean, Bess." As Athelstan does know, he says so honestly, instead of allowing his sister-in-law to attempt to explain her meaning, which he is well aware she cannot. "But tell me again what Lady Arkroyd said about Challis and his wife."
"Just what I told you."
"Which was...?"
"That they had quarrelled, and she had gone away to her mother. The day after he went back."
"Was that all?"