‘Hush!’ said Noah severely.
‘I shan’t hush,’ said David.
The giraffe began to cry.
‘I thought you had such a kind face,’ she whispered, ‘but you don’t seem to care for me. If you only built a storey or two on to your house, and took out the staircase, and grew a great deal, we might be quite happy. You must be patient and grow.’
‘Oh, shut up,’ said Miss Bones, seizing the water-bottle on the table. She drank out of the mouth of it in a very rude manner, and spilt a quantity of it. ‘He doesn’t want you, and you don’t want him, and you’re only shamming. But what’s the matter with me?’
David turned on her.
‘The matter with you is,’ he said, ‘that you’re always eating raw meat. I’d sooner be eaten by the pike than see you eat all day and night.’
Miss Bones put the ox-tail into her mouth again.
‘So that’s that,’ she mumbled. ‘There’s no accounting for tastes.’
Miss Muffet cleared her throat and coughed, holding her hand up to her mouth in the most genteel way.