Peck with high significance.
"Ah when people are in the same boat--literally--they belong a little to
each other."
"That's so," said Mrs. Peck. "I don't know Miss Mavis, but I know all
about her--I live opposite to her on Merrimac Avenue. I don't know
whether you know that part."
"Oh yes--it's very beautiful."
The consequence of this remark was another "Pshaw!" But Mrs. Peck went
on: "When you've lived opposite to people like that for a long time you
feel as if you had some rights in them--tit for tat! But she didn't take
it up today; she didn't speak to me. She knows who I am as well as she
knows her own mother."
"You had better speak to her first--she's constitutionally shy," I
remarked.
"Shy? She's constitutionally tough! Why she's thirty years old," cried
my neighbour. "I suppose you know where she's going."
"Oh yes--we all take an interest in that."
"That young man, I suppose, particularly." And then as I feigned a
vagueness: "The handsome one who sits _there_. Didn't you tell me he's
Mrs. Nettlepoint's son?"
"Oh yes--he acts as her deputy. No doubt he does all he can to carry out
her function."
Mrs. Peck briefly brooded. I had spoken jocosely, but she took it with a
serious face. "Well, she might let him eat his dinner in peace!" she
presently put forth.
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