“When I found him in that back parlour,” said Mrs. Harrop, “I thought he wasn’t there to pay the usual call. Somehow it didn’t seem as if he was like a clergyman. I felt quite queer: it came over me all of a sudden. And then we know he’s been there once or twice since.”
“I don’t wonder at your feeling queer, Mrs. Harrop,” quoth Mrs. Cobb. “I’m sure I should have fainted; and what brazen boldness to walk out together on the Common at nine o’clock in the morning. That girl who brought in the tea—it’s my belief that a young man goes after her—but even they wouldn’t demean themselves to be seen at it just after breakfast.”
“You don’t mean to say as your Deborah encourages a man, Mrs. Cobb! I don’t know what we are a-comin’ to. You’ve always been so particular, and she seemed so respectable. I _am_ sorry.”
Mrs. Cobb did not quite relish Mrs. Harrop’s pity.
“You may be sure, Mrs. Harrop, she was respectable when I took her, and if she isn’t I shan’t keep her. I _am_ particular, more so than most folk, and I don’t mind who knows it.” Mrs. Cobb threw back her cap strings. The denial that she minded who knew it may not appear relevant, but desiring to be spiteful she could not at the moment find a better way of showing her spite than by declaring her indifference to the publication of her virtues. If there was no venom in the substance of the declaration there was much in the manner of it. Mrs. Bingham brought back the conversation to the point.
“I suppose you’ve heard what Mrs. Jenkins says? Your husband also, Mrs. Harrop, met them both.”
“Yes he did. He was not quite in time to see as much as Mrs. Jenkins saw, and I’m glad he didn’t. I shouldn’t have felt comfortable if I’d known he had. A clergyman, too! it is shocking. A nice business, this, for the Dissenters.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Bingham, “what are we to do? I had thought of going to her and giving her a bit of my mind, but she has got that yellow gown to make. What is your opinion, Miss Tarrant?”
“I would not degrade myself, Mrs. Bingham, by any expostulations with her. I would have nothing more to do with her. Could you not relieve her of the unfinished gown? Mrs. Swanley, I am sure, under the circumstances would be only too happy to complete it for you.”