I should like to know whether you think Morris Townsend will hang on

What I wish is simply to give you notice of my own state of mind!
Take it to heart, dear Lavinia. Beware of the just resentment of a deluded fortune-hunter!"
"I can't say I expected it," said Mrs. Penniman.
"And I had a sort of foolish hope that you would come home without that odious ironical tone with which you treat the most sacred subjects."
"Don't undervalue irony, it is often of great use.
It is not, however, always necessary, and I will show you how gracefully I can lay it aside.
I should like to know whether you think Morris Townsend will hang on."
"I will answer you with your own weapons," said Mrs. Penniman.
"Do you call such a speech as that one of my own weapons?
"He will hang on long enough to make you very uncomfortable, then."
"My dear Lavinia," exclaimed the Doctor, "do you call that irony?
Mrs. Penniman, however, in spite of her pugilism, was a good deal frightened, and she took counsel of her fears.
Her brother meanwhile took counsel, with many reservations, of Mrs. Almond, to whom he was no less generous than to Lavinia, and a good deal more communicative.
"I suppose she has had him there all the while," he said.
"I must look into the state of my wine!
You needn't mind telling me now; I have already said all I mean to say to her on the subject."
"I believe he was in the house a good deal," Mrs. Almond answered. "But you must admit that your leaving Lavinia quite alone was a great change for her, and that it was natural she should want some society."
"I do admit that, and that is why I shall make no row about the wine; I shall set it down as compensation to Lavinia.
She is capable of telling me that she drank it all herself.
Think of the inconceivable bad taste, in the circumstances, of that fellow making free with the house--or coming there at all!
"If she is to have a fall," said Mrs. Almond, with a gentle laugh, "we must spread as many carpets as we can."
And she carried out this idea by showing a great deal of motherly kindness to the girl.
Mrs. Penniman immediately wrote to Morris Townsend.
The intimacy between these two was by this time consummate, but I must content myself with noting but a few of its features.
Mrs. Penniman's own share in it was a singular sentiment, which might have been misinterpreted, but which in itself was not discreditable to the poor lady.