48
CRAIG’S WIFE
Miss Austen
- None of them has ever run in and out to you so far that I remember.
Mrs. Craig
- One of them has just left.
Miss Austen
- She wasn’t here to see you.
Mrs. Craig
- She was in my house, wasn’t she?
Miss Austen
- And in your husband’s house.
Mrs. Craig
- Oh— (She gives a little laugh of mirthless amusement) Well, she was hardly here to see my husband, was she?
- [Miss Austen holds her eye for a second.
Miss Austen
- No, she was not; although I’ve no doubt you’d attempt such an interpretation if you thought there was any possibility of Walter’s believing it. I don’t think any extremity would be too great for you, Harriet, as long as it kept people out of the Temple of the Lord. This Holy of Holies. It’s a great wonder to me you haven’t asked us to take off our shoes, when we walk across the carpet. (Mr. Craig coughs, somewhere upatairs, and Mrs. Craig moves suddenly to the foot of the stairs and looks up) Mrs. Frazier was here to see me, your husband’s aunt. And I made her welcome; and so did he. And asked her to come back again. And I don’t think you’d find him very much in accord with your attitude, if he knew about it.
Mrs. Craig
- Well, you’ll probably tell him.
