"Caramels in chocolate."
"I hate caramels!" Flossie declared, fearing, with the old clinging to ungraciousness that sulky people have, that her last reply had sounded too much like coming round, a concession which Flossie never made too soon or made too cheap.
"Nougât?" said May, putting the caramels on one side.
"You know I can't eat nougât; it always makes my teeth ache!" Flossie cried.
"Fondants?" May knew that her sister was passionately fond of that form of sweetmeats. But Flossie would have none of it.
"I detest fondants!" she said, with an impressiveness which would have been worthy of the occasion had she said that she detested--well, prussic acid, or some pleasant and deadly preparation of that kind.
"Well, it's a pity I worried Ma for them at all," May remarked with her usual placid air of disgust. "Perhaps, though, you'll think differently after lunch. Come down, and pray don't look like that! Pa's at home."
CHAPTER IX
AN ASTUTE TELL-PIE
But not even the presence of Mr. Stubbs, who was held in great awe by his sons and daughters, and was most emphatically what is known as "master in his own house," was sufficient to restore the redoubtable Flossie to her usual careless, happy-go-lucky, giggling sauciness.