He lit a cigarette.
"Have one?" he suggested to Mrs Hamps, holding out the case.
"I shall give you a rap over the knuckles in a minute," smiled Mrs
Hamps, who was now leaning an elbow on the table in easy intimacy. And
she went on in a peculiar tone, low, mysterious, and yet full of
vivacity: "I can't quite make out who that little nephew is that Janet
Orgreave is taking about."
"Little nephew that Janet's taking about!" murmured Maggie, in surprise;
and to Edwin, "Do you know?"
Edwin shook his head. "When?" he asked.
"Well, this morning," said Mrs Hamps. "I met them as I was coming up.
She was on one side of the road, and the child was on the other--just
opposite Howson's. My belief is she'd lost all control over the little
jockey. Oh! A regular little jockey! You could see that at once.
`Now, George, come along,' she called to him. And then he shouted, `I
want you to come on this side, auntie.' Of course I couldn't stop to
see it out. She was so busy with him she only just moved to me."
"George? George?" Maggie consulted her memory. "How old was he,
about?"
"Seven or eight, I should say."
"Well, it couldn't be one of Tom's children. Nor Alicia's."
"No," said Auntie Hamps. "And I always understood that the eldest
daughter's--what's her name?"
"Marian."
"Marian's were all girls."
"I believe they are. Aren't they, Edwin?"
"How can I tell?" said Edwin. It was a marvel to him how his auntie
collected her information. Neither she nor Clara had ever been in the
slightest degree familiar with the Orgreaves, and Maggie, so far as he
knew, was not a gossiper. He thought he perceived, however, the
explanation of Mrs Hamps's visit. She had encountered in the street a
phenomenon which would not harmonise with facts of her own knowledge,
and the discrepancy had disturbed her to such an extent that she had
been obliged to call in search of relief. There was that, and there was
also her natural inclination to show herself off on her triumphant
sixtieth birthday.
"Charles Orgreave isn't married, is he?" she inquired.
"No," said Maggie.
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