"He wouldn't have eaten the apples; peaches and bananas were good enough for him," George continued.
"But the serpent started it, and the serpent was the devil in disguise, and the devil is a fallen angel, and all angels, as you told me once, are gentlemen. So the male sex is the most deceitful after all."
"Why can't you stick to the subject?" said George sourly.
"Certainly," laughed Nellie. "This business about the furniture must be settled finally one way or the other. Are the Mudges to have anything, and, if not, how are they to be prevented from taking just what they want?"
"Robert and Bessie are not to take a stick from the house, or a stone from the garden; and they must give back the things they have stolen," replied George.
"Are those scraps of paper worth anything at all?" she demanded.
"They are as useless as agreements between nations."
"Then why don't you tell Kezia?"
"Because the law is so slippery."
"That means you are not certain."