"We had tea at The Grange to-day, Mrs. Pelgrin," said Dan casually.
The landlady wrapped her hands in her apron and wheeled grimly at the door to speak aggressively. "Ho!" she grunted.
"I said 'Ho,' and 'Ho's' all I'm going to say."
"Well," drawled Freddy with a shrug, "you can't say much less, you know."
"Less or much, I don't say anything," retorted Mrs. Pelgrin, screwing up her hard mouth and nodding.
"Nobody wants you to say anything," remarked Dan lazily, but on the alert.
Of course this speech opened the landlady's mouth. "People say as it's queer two ladies should live like dormice in a haystack," she observed significantly.
"That's like people. They will meddle with what doesn't concern them."
"Not me," snorted Mrs. Pelgrin violently and epigrammatically. "I don't say what I could say, for what I could say wouldn't be what's right to say."
"Wouldn't it?" inquired Freddy innocently.
"No, it wouldn't, sir; I'm not to be pumped," cried Mrs. Pelgrin, "try you ever so hard. So there!" and she screwed up her mouth tighter than ever.
"Who is pumping?" asked Dan coolly; "I simply remarked that we had tea with Mrs. Jarsell and Miss Armour to-day."
"Friends of yours, no doubt?" snapped the landlady.
"I never saw them before to-day, Mrs. Pelgrin."
"Then don't see them again," advised the woman sharply.
"Thank you for that advice. Anything wrong?"
"Wrong! Wrong! What should be wrong?" Mrs. Pelgrin became more violent than ever. "There's nothing wrong."
"Then that's all right," said Halliday coolly. "Goodnight."
Mrs. Pelgrin stared hard at him, evidently wondering why he did not press his questions, seeing how significant a remark she had made. The idea that her conversation was trivial in his eyes hurt her self-esteem. She gave another hint that she knew something. "I wonder how those ladies make their money," she observed casually to the ceiling.
"Ah, I wonder," agreed Dan, making a covert sign that Freddy should restrain the question now on the tip of his tongue.
"Three motor-cars," said Mrs. Pelgrin musingly, "four servants, women all and sluts at that, I do say, with a house like a palace inside, whatever it may be to look at from the road. All that needs money, Mr. Halliday."
"Quite so. Nothing for nothing in this greedy world."