“Oh, aunt!”
“Well, it’s quite true, my dear, and you know it. I could name a dozen things.”
“No, no, don’t name ’em, aunt,” said Vane hurriedly. “I know I have made some mistakes; but then everyone does who tries to invent.”
“Then why not let things be as they are, my dear. I’m sure the old corkscrew was better to take out corks than the thing you made.”
“It would have been beautiful, aunt,” cried Vane, “if—”
“It hadn’t broken so many bottles,” said the doctor with a humorous look in his eyes. “It wouldn’t have mattered if it had been aunt’s cowslip wine, but it always chose my best port and sherry.”
“And then there was that churn thing,” continued Aunt Hannah.
“Oh, come, aunt, that was a success.”
“What, a thing that sent all the cream flying out over Martha when she turned the handle! No, my dear, no.”
“But you will not see, aunt, that it was because the thing was not properly made.”