"We won't go quite so far as that," she said to him, "because--" She stopped, unwilling to dwell too long on a delicate subject.

He jocosely finished the sentence for her.

"Because we don't know what may happen in the future ?" he suggested; making another mistake by making a joke.
Mrs.Linley returned to the subject of the governess.
"I don't at all say what my mother says," she resumed; "but was it not just a little indiscreet to engage Miss Westerfield without any references ?" "Unless I am utterly mistaken," Linley replied, "you would have been quite as indiscreet, in my place.

If you had seen the horrible woman who persecuted and insulted her--" His wife interrupted him.

"How did all this happen, Herbert?
Who first introduced you to Miss Westerfield ?" Linley mentioned the advertisement, and described his interview with the schoolmistress.