An' 'e's got a
bit of a down on you as it is, for it 'avin' bin your place I met the
future Mrs. O. at."
"My good man!" broke from Mahony--and in this address, which would
previously never have crossed his lips, all his sensations of the past
hour were summed up. "Has your son Henry the"--he checked himself;
"does he suppose I--I or my wife--had anything to do with it?"
He turned back to the surgery hot with annoyance. This, too! Not enough
that he must be put out of countenance by indiscreet babbling; he must
also get drawn into family squabbles, even be held responsible for them:
he who, brooking no interference in his own life, demanded only that
those about him should be as intolerant as he.
It all came from Polly's indiscriminate hospitality. His house was never
his own. And now they had the prospect of John and his electoral
campaign before them. And John's chances of success, and John's stump
oratory, and the backstair-work other people were expected to do for him
would form the main theme of conversation for many a day to come.
Mrs. Glendinning confirmed old Ocock's words.
She came to talk over the engagement with Polly, and sitting in the
parlour cried a little, and was sorry. But then "poor little Agnes"
cried so easily nowadays. Richard said her nerves had been shattered by
the terrible affair just before Christmas, when Mr. Glendinning had
tried first to kill her, and then to cut his own throat.
Agnes said: "But I told Henry quite plainly, darling, that I would not
cease my visits to you on that account.
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