"Yes," gulped the hen. "Your husband made me do it."
"Why, I...."
"Keep quiet, Eustace! Let me manage her. Did he go away and leave you?"
The hen nodded.
"And he hasn't been back since?"
She shook her head.
"And now you want him to come back?"
"Oh yes—yes!" she moaned. "I'll let him have his way in everything, and never leave my nest, and never ask any more questions!"
"Hear that, Eustace?"
He did, in blank silence.