They all listened and presently the parrot said solemnly:
“Now see what you’ve done!” and relapsed into silence.
“What does he mean?” Aunt Mary asked.
“He’s referring to his own affairs,” said Burnett; “come on—let’s get coffee now!”
They all adjourned to a tiny room lined with posters and decorated with pipe racks, and there had ice cream in the form of bulls and bears, and coffee of the strongest variety. And then cordials and cigarettes.
“Now, where shall we go to first?” asked Burnett when all were well lit up. No one would have guessed that he had ever felt used up in all his life before.
“To a roof garden,” said Mitchell. “We’ll go to a roof garden first, and then we’ll go to more roof gardens, and after that if the spirit moves we’ll go to yet a few roof gardens in addition. We’ll show our dear aunt what wonders can be done with roofs, and to-morrow she’ll wonder what was done with her.”
“That’s the bill,” said Clover, “and let’s go now. I can see from the general manner of my mouse that he’s dying to get out and make his way in the wide world.”
“Mine the same,” said Mitchell; “by George, it worries me to see such restless, feverish manners in what I had supposed would be a quiet domestic companion. It presages a distracted existence. But come on.”
They all rose.