"Leggo my hair, Lily!"
Lily "leggoed" his hair.
"He is trying to blow rings," she explained, "but he can only blow ribands and streamers. Also, he looks like an owl when he tries. Rings on his fingers and bells on his toes," she added with immense thoughtfulness. "Toby, I'll buy you a peal of bells if you will promise to wear them on your toes."
Toby got up from his chair.
"If anyone has anything else of a peculiarly personal nature to say about me, now is their time," he remarked; "otherwise, we'll go out. Dear me! the last time I was here we got snowed up at Pangbourne, and slept in the Elephant Inn, and I remember I dreamed about boiled rabbit. I seldom dream, but I remember it when I do."
Lily sighed.
"Yes, and poor Kit was waiting for us all here. She was quite alone, mother, and had an awful crise des nerves over it."
"I should have thought she was the last person in the world to be nervous," said Mrs. Murchison.
"Oh, crise des nerves is not nervousness," said Lily; "it is being strung up, and run down, and excited."
"My mother," remarked Mrs. Murchison, "was of a very nervous temperament. I have seen her on the coldest days suddenly empty a carafe of water over the fire, for fear of the house catching. And evenings she would sometimes blow out the candle for the same reason."