"Eh? Yet you said just now. . . . So there are two, after all!"
"It's—it's this way, ma'am: the letters are the same, but the invitation as you call it—" Here Cai paused and cast an irritable glance in the direction of Dinah, who had stepped to the door of the oven to conceal her mirth. If the woman would but go he might be able to explain. "But the invitation don't apply similarly, not in both cases."
"That's queer, isn't it?" commented Mrs Bosenna. "And, supposin' I accept, to which of you must I write?"
"Me," said 'Bias with great promptitude.
"Not at all." Cai turned in wrath on his friend.
"I do think you might help, instead of standin' there and—"
"Can't I accept both?" suggested Mrs Bosenna sweetly.
"No, you certainly can't, ma'am. . . . And since the letters seemin'ly haven't reached you yet, we'd both of us take it as a favour if you'd hand 'em back to us without lookin' inside 'em. We—we want to try again, and send something calkilated to please you better. 'Tis a queer request, I'll grant you."
"It is," she agreed, cutting him short. "But what's the matter with the letters? Did you put any bad language into them by any chance?"
"Ma'am!" exclaimed Cai.