This quotation is spoken by Atticus' brother, Jack, during
the Finch family's Christmas gathering in Chapter 9 of To Kill a
Mockingbird. Scout had earlier gotten into a fight with her cousin, Francis,
in which she "split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth." Uncle Jack had spanked
Scout, blaming her entirely for the altercation. Later, when Uncle Jack took care of
Scout's wounds in the bathroom after the two had made up, she asked
him,
"What's a
whore-lady?"
It was what
Scout had called Francis earlier, but she had no idea what the term meant; to her, it
was an innocent question. Jack's later statement that "Her use of bathroom invective
leaves nothing to the imagination," simply means that he was astonished at the young
Scout's question about such a demeaning and seemingly adult phrase. ("Invective," by the
way, is defined as the use of an insulting or abusive term.) Jack avoided answering
Scout's question directly, instead telling her a story about Lord
Melbourne.
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