"You--you--" he said thickly.

"It seems--it seems to me you're--you're pretty common!" Amelia tried to give the impression of an unconcerned person laughing with complete indifference, but the sounds she produced were disjointed and uneasy.

She fanned herself, looking out of the open window near her.
"Of course, if you want to make more trouble in the family than we've already got, George, with your eavesdropping, you can go and repeat--" Old Bronson had risen from his chair in great distress.

"Your aunt was talking nonsense because she's piqued over a business matter, George," he said.

"She doesn't mean what she said, and neither she nor any one else gives the slightest credit to such foolishness--no one in the world!" George gulped, and wet lines shone suddenly along his lower eyelids.
"They--they'd better not!" he said, then stalked out of the room, and out of the house.