They made a long halt in the dining-room.
"That must be their solid silver," said Mrs.Van Dorn, regarding rather an ostentatious display on the sideboard.
"The idea of going away and leaving all that silver, and the doors unlocked!" said Mrs.Lee.
"Evidently they are people so accustomed to rich things that they don't think of such risks," said Mrs.Van Dorn, with a curious effect of smacking her lips over possessions of her own, instead of her neighbors.

She in reality spoke from the heights of a small but solid silver service, and a noble supply of spoons, and Mrs.Lee knew it.
"I suppose they must have perfectly beautiful table-linen," remarked Mrs.Lee, with a wistful glance at the sideboard-drawers.
"Yes, I suppose so," assented Mrs.Van Dorn, with a half-sigh.

Her eyes also on the closed drawers of the sideboard, were melancholy, but there was a line which neither woman could pass.

They could pry about another woman's house in her absence, but they shrank from opening her drawers and investigating her closets.

They respected all that was covered from plain sight.