"What will you have with your tea? Ham?"
"Nothing, Kate; we dined on the road."
"Will she?"
"You mean—"
"Yes," she interrupted impatiently.
He looked at his sister, who went up to the table, then put the question to me. I wished for nothing; so Miss O'Reilly simply rang the bell; a demure-looking servant brought in the tray. When the tea was made and poured out, Miss O'Reilly said to me, in her short way—
"Child, Thing, give that cup to Cornelius."
"But my name is Margaret," I objected, a little nettled at being called
"Thing."
"I know it is," she replied in a low tone.
"Margaret," musingly repeated Cornelius, taking the cup I was handing to him, "diminutives, Meg, Peg, and by way of variety Peggy; which do you prefer, child?"