“Shall I give you some?” repeated Arthur.
Miss Fortescue glanced at the menu-card.
“Only a very little,” she said.
“But where is the proper mean, Miss Fortescue?” resumed Jack. “How can one avoid both being well informed and being ignorant?”
“Well-informed people are those who know about the wrong things,” she said.
“I and the pearl-oysters, for instance?”
Aunt Em groaned.
“The Englishman again,” she said. “The Englishman abroad! How well that expresses the Englishman’s attitude toward ideas.”
“And the Englishman at home is the Englishman slaughtering innocent beasts, I suppose,” said Arthur. “I’ve only given you a very small piece, Aunt Em.”
“Yes, dear, you have taken me at my word,” said Miss Fortescue, inspecting her plate. “That is very English, too. We are the heaviest, most literal nation that ever disgraced this planet.”