"
"Don't be irreverent," said Mrs. Mallowe. "I like Mrs. Bent's face."
"I am discussing the Waddy," returned Mrs. Hauksbee, loftily. "The Waddy will
take the female Bent apart, after having borrowed--yes!--everything that she
can, from hairpins to babies' bottles. Such, my dear, is life in a hotel. The
Waddy will tell the female Bent facts and fictions about The Dancing Master
and The Dowd."
"Lucy, I should like you better if you were not always looking into people's
back bedrooms."
"Anybody can look into their front drawing-rooms; and remember whatever I do,
and whatever I look, I never talk--as the Waddy will. Let us hope that The
Dancing Master's greasy smile and manner of the pedagogue will soften the
heart of that cow, his wife. If mouths speak truth, I should think that little
Mrs. Bent could get very angry on occasion.
"But what reason has she for being angry?"
"What reason! The Dancing Master in himself is a reason. How does it go? 'If
in his life some trivial errors fall, Look in his face and you'll believe them
all.' I am prepared to credit any evil of The Dancing Master, because I hate
him so. And The Dowd is so disgustingly badly dressed"--
"That she, too, is capable of every iniquity? I always prefer to believe the
best of everybody.
Pages:
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446