"That gentleman said it was Humphie who was Humpty-Dumpty. Is that true, Fardie?"
"No, darling; how could Humphrey be an egg?"
"One part's true, though," said Miles, "'Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall.'"
"Ah! that's true!" sighed Sir Everard.
"What's the end, Fardie? I want to remember it, and I can't—do you?"
Why did Sir Everard put the child down so suddenly, and why should his voice falter a little, as he repeated the baby couplet? They were only nursery rhymes, and this is how they ended:
"All the king's horses, and all the king's men,
Will never set Humpty-Dumpty up again."
"It's 'diculous nonsense, Fardie, of course?"
"A ridiculous nonsensical rhyme, darling!"