When Mrs.MacHugh and Miss Stanbury, with Mr.and Mrs.Crumbie, had seated themselves at their whist-table, the younger people were able to express their opinions without danger of interruption or of rebuke.

It was known to all Exeter by this time, that Dorothy Stanbury's mother had gone to the Clock House, and that she had done so in order that Mrs.
Trevelyan might have a home.

But it was not yet known whether anybody had called upon them.

There was Mrs.Merton, the wife of the present parson of Nuncombe, who had known the Stanburys for the last twenty years; and there was Mrs.Ellison of Lessboro', who lived only four miles from Nuncombe, and who kept a pony-carriage.

It would be a great thing to know how these ladies had behaved in so difficult and embarrassing a position.