It had been a great grief to the old gentleman that she had borne no son to inherit the family fortune.

So naturally people began to talk.

She was found subsequently under the floor of the house, and it cost that respectable old gentleman twenty thousand rupees to get himself acquitted." Ralston pulled himself up with a jerk, realising that this was not the most appropriate story which he could have told to a lady with the overstrained nerves of Mrs.Oliver.
He turned to her with a fresh apology upon his lips.

But the apology was never spoken.
"What's the matter, Mrs.Oliver ?" he asked.
She had not heard the story of the respectable old gentleman.

That was clear.