"My dear, it is never too late to learn."
"Keep to the point," I said.
"As if I am not keeping to it! I have no morning room."
"So you are to sit in your morning room, and I am to sit in my study, instead of sitting and chatting together, as we have always done. A cheerful prospect! What next?"
"We have very good servants," she said pensively.
"Has that anything to do with the inconveniences you speak of?"
"I shouldn't like to lose the girls, especially cook. They sleep in the attic, you know, and the roof is shockingly out of repair."
"It is the chronic condition of roofs. Go where you will, you hear the same story. Have the girls complained?"
"No, but I can see what is coming."
"Ah!"