"Are you going to begin?"
"Not to scold, my dear. Looking back, can you remember that I ever scolded you?"
"I can remember a great many times when you ought."
"But to tell you the truth, I don't like all that you have done here. I cannot see that it was necessary."
"People make changes in their gardens without necessity sometimes."
"But these changes are made because of your guests. Had they been made to gratify your own taste I would have said nothing,—although even in that case I think you might have told me what you proposed to do."
"What;—when you are so burdened with work that you do not know how to turn?"
"I am never so burdened that I cannot turn to you. But, as you know, that is not what I complain of. If it were done for yourself, though it were the wildest vagary, I would learn to like it. But it distresses me to think that what might have been good enough for our friends before should be thought to be insufficient because of the office I hold. There is a—a—a—I was almost going to say vulgarity about it which distresses me."
"Vulgarity!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her sofa.
"I retract the word. I would not for the world say anything that should annoy you;—but pray, pray do not go on with it." Then again he left her.