Mrs.Bower was out; Mary had been left in charge of the shop.
'You were asking me about Mr.Ackroyd,' she said, when they had gone into the parlour.

'Would you like to know something I heard about him last night ?' Lydia knew that it was something disagreeable; Mary's air of discharging a duty sufficiently proved that.
'What is it ?' she asked coldly.
'They were talking about him here when I came back last night.

He's begun to go about with that girl Totty Nancarrow.' Lydia cast down her eyes.

Mary keeping silence, she said: 'Well, what if he has ?' 'I think it's right you should know, on Thyrza's account.' 'Thyrza has nothing to do with Mr.Ackroyd; you know that, Mary.' 'But there's something else.

He's begun to drink, Lydia.