"I don't know how to begin," she said to herself.
"The beginning's easy enough," I explained, as I took a dish of green sweets under my charge, "it's the knowing when to stop."
"Can you eat those and listen to something serious?"
"I'll try.... Yes, I can eat them all right. Now, let's see if I can listen.... Yes, I can listen all right."
"Then it's this. I've been putting it off as long as I can, but you've got to be told to-night. It's—well—do you know why you're here?"
"Of course, I do. Haven't I just been showing you?"
"Well, why are you here?"
"Well, frankly, because I'm hungry, I suppose. Of course, I know that if I hadn't been I should have come in to dinner, just the same, but—— Hang it, I mean that's the root idea of a dining-room, isn't it? And I am hungry. At least I was."
"Stave it off again with an almond," said Myra, pushing them along to me. "What I really meant was why you're here in the house."
This was much more difficult. I began to consider possible reasons.