'"The Old Maid," daddy,' said Ross.
'Well, it doesn't seem to have much breast.'
'But then,' as my small brother remarked, 'you wouldn't expect an old maid to have much, would you?'
I made the next faux pas, but it was kindly meant. Aunt Amelia grumbled that she had been quite chilly in the night and hadn't been able to sleep, so I said,—
'Mother, couldn't we search the parish for a young virgin for Aunt Amelia like King David had when he was old and gat no heat?'
Father exploded into his tumbler. But Aunt Amelia said she had hoped that I would grow up a good, pure woman like my grandmother. Daddy lost his temper then and said he profoundly hoped his daughter wouldn't grow up 'a good, pure woman' if it meant that——'
'Anthony!' said mother.
And father said 'Sorry, Biddy,' and asked Aunt Amelia if she'd have some more bread sauce.
(Mother and daddy always called hot water bottles 'Young Virgins' after that!)
After lunch we all went down to the lake, and going through the woods I said something was 'infernal,' and there was a horrid silence. Daddy is like that, he so seldom says anything. It's what he doesn't say that's so beastly if he's displeased with one, so I said, 'Mustn't I, daddy?' and he replied, 'I think you know quite well, darling.'