“We have talked together.”
“About her children——!” He held up his hands.
“What are we coming to? I ask Heaven the question.”
“I can answer it, Sir Geoffrey. I know my place, and her ladyship knows hers—none better. I did take the liberty of trying to interest her in Nether-Applewhite children. And then she told me quite frankly that children bored her. I remember her words—yes. ‘I can endure a clean child for ten minutes. Babies in the mass make me think kindly of Herod.’”
“Her ladyship, Ben, likes a joke with an edge to it. You wait till she has babies of her own.”
“One might have to wait long for that. Lady Margot’s family is almost extinct. A great-uncle died in a private asylum.”
“I see you’ve been nosin’ about. Just like you. All old families have their skeletons.”
Fishpingle, carried out of himself for a moment, like the hapless Alfred, forgot his place, as he muttered:
“Yes, yes, her ladyship is very thin.”
The Squire jumped up.