As far as I go they might as well not be there.' 'Exactly,' he replied.
'Mightn't they ?' she asked again.
'Just as well,' he repeated.

And there was a little pause.
'Except that they ARE there, and that's a nuisance,' she said.

'There are my sons-in-law,' she went on, in a sort of monologue.

'Now Laura's got married, there's another.

And I really don't know John from James yet.