A. E. W. Mason

“ Ballantyne, Aunt Margaret. You are unjust to her because you don't know her. I want you to," he said boldly.
"What!" cried Mrs. Pettifer. "You actually— Oh!" Indignation robbed her of words. She gasped.
"Yes, I do," continued Dick calmly. "I want you to come one night and dine at Little Beeding. We'll persuade Mrs. Ballantyne to come too."
It was a bold move, and even in his eyes it had its risks for Stella. To bring Mrs. Pettifer and her together was, so it seemed to him, to mix earth with delicate flame. But he had great faith in Stella Ballantyne. ”

“ CHAPTER XV THE GREAT CRUUSADE "I was in Great Beeding this morning," said Dick, as he sat at luncheon with his father, "and the blinds were up in Aunt Margaret's house."
"They have returned from their holiday then," his father observed with a tremor in his voice. He looked afraid. Then he looked annoyed.
"Pettifer will break down if he doesn't take care," he exclaimed petulantly. "No man with any sense would work as hard as he does. He ought to have taken two months this year at the least."
"We should still have to meet Aunt Margaret at the end of them," said Dick calmly. ”

“ Robert Pettifer however had prospered, and though he had reached an age when he might have claimed his leisure the nine o'clock train still took him daily to London.
"Aunt Margaret isn't after all so violent," said Dick, for whom she kept a very soft place in her heart. But Harold shook his head.
"Your aunt, Richard, has all the primeval ferocity of the average woman." And then the fires of the enthusiast were set alight in his blue eyes. "I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll send her my new pamphlet, Richard. It may have a humanising influence upon her. ”