"She's grown bolder, then; I did meet her, and she was quite willing to have an innocent conversation. I say innocent, I'm slighting the word, she'll need years before she's worldly enough to be just innocent. No, don't worry, I'm not going to tell her; not unless she somehow comes to ask me of her own accord. It's gossip, in her case, slander, and what's the use of passing it on? But if anyone else tells her to hurt her, she will rather have the right to despise us for silence, you know."

He sighs, suddenly disgusted. "Filthy trick, every word of it." He means more than the book; but the book's the immediate problem. "No, I'm not passing it on."