“We'll do it in a committee of the whole house,” said Julia, “for when a man's trunk is once corded he never goes back of his journey.”
CHAPTER LV. THE PRISONER AT CATTARO
So much occupied and interested were the little household of the villa in Bramleigh's departure—there were so many things to be done, so many things to be remembered—that L'Estrange never once thought of the messenger from the Podestà, who still waited patiently for his answer.
“I declare,” said Julia, “that poor man is still standing in the hall. For pity's sake, George, give him some answer, and send him away.”
“But what is the answer to be, Ju? I have not the faintest notion of how these cases are dealt with.”
“Let us look over what that great book of instructions says. I used to read a little of it every day when we came first, and I worried Mr. Bramleigh so completely with my superior knowledge that he carried it off and hid it.”
“Oh, I remember now. He told me he had left it at the consulate, for that you were positively driving him distracted with official details.”
“How ungrateful men are! They never know what good 'nagging' does them. It is the stimulant that converts half the sluggish people in the world into reasonably active individuals.”
“Perhaps we are occasionally over-stimulated,” said George, dryly.