Mr.and Mrs.Gresley did not realize that Hester and Rachel wished to "talk secrets," as they would have expressed it, and Rachel's arrival was felt by the Gresleys to be the appropriate moment to momentarily lay aside their daily avocations, and to join Hester and Rachel in the garden for social intercourse.

The Gresleys liked Rachel.

Listeners are generally liked.
Perhaps also her gentle, unassuming manner was not an unpleasant change after the familiar nonchalance of the Pratts.
The two friends bore their fate for a time in inward impatience, and then, not without compunction, "practised to deceive." Certain obtuse persons push others, naturally upright, into eluding and outwitting them, just as the really wicked people, who give _viva voce_ invitations, goad us into crevasses of lies, for which, if there is any justice anywhere, they will have to answer at the last day.

Mr.Gresley gave the last shove to Hester and Rachel by an exhaustive harangue on what he called socialism.

Finding they were discussing some phase of it, he drew up a chair and informed them that he had "threshed out" the whole subject.
"Socialism," he began, delighted with the polite resignation of his hearers, which throughout life he mistook for earnest attention.
"Community of goods.