Mr. Burton hastened to make the “amende honorable” peculiar to the conjugal relation and said:
“Don’t fear, my dear. They didn’t understand.”
“Oh, didn’t they?” exclaimed Mrs. Burton. “I wish all my adult friends had as quick perceptions as those boys. They may not understand big words, but tones and looks are enough for them.”
“Why?” said Mr. Burton, “they scarcely looked up from their plates.”
“Never mind,” replied the lady, delighted at an opportunity to reassert her superiority in at least one particular. “Children—boys, are more like women than like men. Their unblunted sensibilities are quick; their intuition is simply angelic. Would that their other qualities were also so perfect.”
“I’m very sorry, my dear,” said Mr. Burton, temporarily subjugated, “that I said a word to them, and when you are ready to kneel upon the stool of repentance I’ll depart and leave you alone.”
“You’ll have no occasion to go,” said Mrs. Burton. “I’ve confessed already—to them, and a single confession is enough. I rather like the operation, when, for my reward, I receive sympathy instead of sarcasm.”
“Again, I ask forgiveness,” said Mr. Burton; “and having made a fellow-penitent of myself, can’t I have good in return for my evil, and know what a fellow-sufferer has learned from experience?”
“Just this,” said Mrs. Burton; “that nobody is fit to take the care of children excepting the children’s own parents.”
Mr. Burton dropped his fork and exclaimed: