‘I never knew it do so. It does chatter a great deal, but it never scratched that I knew of.’
‘Nor I,’ said the showman, ‘since it was young. Do you think age renders it graver and steadier?’
‘Not a bit. It is always frisky and troublesome, and I never knew it get a bit better as it grew older.’
Winifred laughed outright. Mr. Kendal’s lips were parted by his smile. ‘I wonder what sort of a mother it would make?’ said the showman.
‘All animals are good mothers, of course.’
‘I meant, is it a good disciplinarian?’
‘If you mean cuffing its young one for playing exactly the same tricks as itself.’
‘Exactly; and what would be the effect of letting it and its young one loose in a great scholar’s study?’
‘There wouldn’t be much study left.’
‘And would it be for his good?’