And she told me in confidence what people are saying--as how Louise was to marry Mr.Bowling, but he broke it off when he found _the sort of people she was living with_, here at Sutton--and a great many more things as I shouldn't like to tell you.

Now what _do_ you think of--' Emmeline, her eyes flashing, broke in angrily: 'I think nothing at all about it, Mrs.Higgins, and I had very much rather not hear the talk of such people.' 'I don't wonder it aggravates you, Mrs.Mumford.Did anyone ever hear such a scandal! I'm sure nobody that knows you could say a word against your respectability, and, as I told Mrs.Jolliffe, she's quite at liberty to call here to-morrow or the next day--' 'Not to see _me_, I hope,' said Emmeline.

'I must refuse--' 'Now just let me tell you what I've thought,' pursued the stout lady, hardly aware of this interruption.

'This'll have to be set right, both for Lou's sake and for yours, and to satisfy us all.
They're making a mystery, d'you see, of Lou leaving 'ome and going off to live with strangers; and Cissy's been doing her best to make people think there's something wrong--the spiteful creature! And there's only one way of setting it right.

As soon as Lou can be dressed and got down, and when the drawing-room's finished, I want her to ask all our friends here to five o'clock tea, just to let them see with their own eyes--' 'Mrs.Higgins!' 'Of course there'll be no expense for _you_, Mrs.Mumford--not a farthing.