Muriel pondered a great deal on all this. She was an earnest child.
The prevailing attitude of condemnation-kindly-suspended-till-after-meals was responsible for a certain amount of strain at the first reunion of "happy family" round the supper-table. Nelly talked a great deal of their holiday in Felixstowe, and not at all of Kathleen's holiday in Alpenruh. And Edward again proved his claim to the old and ancient order of Salt-cellar Strategists, by fighting out an entire minor campaign then raging in the Balkans, with the simple aid of a cruet-stand, two knives, a spoon, a fork, a spreading stain of mulberry juice ("This is Albania, d'you see, Nelly?") and the sauce-boat. There was no topic of the hour that Edward could not illustrate with the assistance of these homely vessels, be the subject of his demonstration a railway accident, a mechanical invention, or the defence of Troy.
Having annihilated Montenegro and the chicken at the same time, he pushed back his chair, and remarked ponderously: "I should like a few minutes with you in the study, Kath, if you're not too busy."
"... Well?" Nelly queried eagerly, half an hour later, on finding her husband alone.
"Can't make head or tail of it," said Edward, very angry. "Either Kath is mad or I am."
Nelly supplied the necessary assurances.
"Well, but she says she won't marry him. Now what do you think of that?" The question was a mere form; Edward was aware what his wife thought of "that," and of everything else; to which satisfactory state of things might be attributed his domestic happiness.
"I've been very tactful," continued the head of the house; "very tactful and very lenient. I'm broad-minded, as you know."
"Yes. So am I, of course. But, Neddy, you must have bullied her. And you promised not to. Remember," and Nelly lowered her face, "she hasn't got a mother."
"Nor have I," crossly. "The same mother. That by no means explains her extraordinary statement that she doesn't want to marry this fellow who has"—he hesitated between "compromised" and "seduced," then discarded both in favour of—"led her astray."