"WHY, mother! I'm surprised at you!"
"Hoh! Oh, Joe! Goodness! You nearly made me jump over the banisters! Feel my heart!"
"Aren't you ashamed, hanging over the stairs listening to J. Hartley Harrison!"
"Ssh! They'll hear you. Certainly I'm not listening! I hope I have better things to do than listen to Hartley Harrison talk about himself! I'm just trying to find out if there's any chance of his going, so I can get the table set for supper."
"He's waiting to be asked."
"Goodness! Don't I know it! Why can't he go home to his little mother with her great big brain? That's what he's always telling me, that his little mother is the one woman he knows that he can have an intellectually satisfying conversation with—Mrs. Harrison! Hmp! Joe, he's here the whole enduring time. You don't think Charlotte and he could possibly?"
"Gosh, no! Charlotte's dippy about Hoagland."
"Non-sense!" Kate whispered, piercingly.
"Well, I think so."
"Perfectly absurd!"
"He's here all the time."
