"You know what's been going on over there, well enough, Frank Bronson!" "I don't even know what you're talking about." "Oh, you don't?
You don't know that Isabel takes George's side simply because he's Eugene Morgan's best friend ?" "It seems to me you're talking pure nonsense," said Bronson sharply.
"Not impure nonsense, I hope!" Amelia became shrill.

"I thought you were a man of the world: don't tell me you're blind! For nearly two years Isabel's been pretending to chaperone Fanny Minafer with Eugene, and all the time she's been dragging that poor fool Fanny around to chaperone her and Eugene! Under the circumstances, she knows people will get to thinking Fanny's a pretty slim kind of chaperone, and Isabel wants to please George because she thinks there'll be less talk if she can keep her own brother around, seeming to approve.

'Talk!' She'd better look out! The whole town will be talking, the first thing she knows! She--" Amelia stopped, and stared at the doorway in a panic, for her nephew stood there.
She kept her eyes upon his white face for a few strained moments, then, regaining her nerve, looked away and shrugged her shoulders.
"You weren't intended to hear what I've been saying, George," she said quietly.

"But since you seem to--" "Yes, I did." "So!" She shrugged her shoulders again.

"After all, I don't know but it's just as well, in the long run." He walked up to where she sat.