"Pregnant with calamity"

A couple of days ago I finished reading Marghanita Laski's 1952 (?) novel The Village. One could, I suppose, be forgiven for expecting a twee social comedy ala E.F. Benson, but this was a sharper affair. Opening on the last night of WWII, Laski's novel is a shrewd look at what the war did to England's class structure. More than that though, it is a prescient look at how that class structure would come undone in the years to come. And a rather sweet love story to boot. It also contained the fabulous phrase "pregnant with calamity," used to describe two village gossips, and for that I will be forever grateful.