And every day now I say, 'Daddy's on his way home,' and Ross says, 'Won't it be rotten if I just miss him?'
Yesterday in church the vicar announced that there was an awful outbreak of that bug at the local Red Cross hospital, that all the men were down with it, and nearly all the nurses, and the few of them who had escaped were worked to death. He asked for volunteers to help, not with the nursing, but in the kitchen. I told Ross coming home that I should offer, but he wouldn't hear of it, because Toby once said years ago I ought not to go within a million miles of 'flu. But there are times when I don't take kindly to the snaffle, as Sam would say. However, Ross is going to London to-morrow, so I said no more at the moment, and the conversation wandered off to the education and upbringing of the young.
'The poor Gidger doesn't seem to get much bringing up,' said Ross.
'Well, you're her godfather,' I retorted, 'you're to blame; why don't you teach her whether her name is N or M?'
'Oh, she knows her name all right, it's her station in life she doesn't seem to be clear about, thinks she's the Queen of England, I think, same as her mother does.'
'Ross, darling, you don't really think that she's——'
'Oh, you silly little ass, Meg.'
'But I have views on the way a child should be trained.'
'Then for goodness' sake get rid of them at once.'
'But all the same,' I persisted, 'I do hate the way modern children are brought up. They've no manners, they are such little pigs at meals, and they're always served first.'