"I knew he must be, of course.

I am sure you would never encourage such an intimacy unless he were ?" She smiled herself off, leaving Mrs.Yorke fuming.
"That woman is always sticking pins into people," she said to herself.
But this pin had stuck fast, and Mrs.Yorke was in quite a panic.
Mrs.Yorke determined to talk to Alice on the first occasion that offered itself; but she would not do it too abruptly.

All that would be needed would be a hint judiciously given.

For surely a girl of such sound sense as Alice, a girl brought up so wisely, could not for a moment think of acting so foolishly.

And really Mrs.Yorke felt that she herself was very fond of this young man.