Do you really do the work ?' And Margaret, who did not often see her sister, and was of a genuinely inquiring turn of mind, turned upon her a penetrating look.
'Well, of course,' said Mrs.Gaddesden, a little confused, 'there are always the secretaries.' 'Ah-ha!' Mrs.Strang laughed--one might almost say crowed.

'Yes, indeed, if it weren't for the secretaries! By the way, what do you think about the specimen here ?' Mrs.Gaddesden lost her languid air at once.

She sat up among her pillows, a reasonably pretty woman, not without some likeness to Pamela, in points that did not matter.
'My dear Margaret,' she said, with emphasis, 'this has got to be watched!--_watched_, I tell you.' Mrs.Strang opened her eyes wide.
'What on earth do you mean ?' Alice Gaddesden smiled.
'Well, of course, you're much cleverer than I am, but I really do see further in practical matters than you do.

Haven't you noticed,' she bent forward, looking mysterious and intent, 'how _already_ father depends upon her, how she's beginning to run the whole show--and she hasn't been here much more than six weeks?
My dear Margaret, with a secretary like that you _never_ can tell!' 'Well,' said Mrs.Strang coolly, 'and what then ?' 'Oh, well, of course, if you're prepared to see a person like that--in our mother's place!' '"A person like that"-- how dreadfully old-fashioned you are, Alice! She's a lady; she's much more highly educated than you or I, and if she gets her way, she'll perhaps keep father out of some of the scrapes he seems bent on.

You know this business of the park is perfectly mad!' For the first time in this conversation Margaret Strang's face was grave.