"If I might beg to inquire the wherefore of this thirst for information—" hazarded the Angel, politely.
"Oh, nothing much. Only Mary says she has burst her stomach, and that's why she forgets everything."
Fortunately, Aubrey was sitting in his Morris chair. If he had flung himself about in that manner on a bench, he would have broken his back.
"Mary," said Aubrey, when he could speak, "ought to go in a book."
"Mary," I said, with equal emphasis, "ought to go into an asylum."
It was not long after that that old Katie, the cook, came up-stairs, and beckoned me from the room.
"You said, Mrs. Jardine, that you'd never seen butter made. Now I've got the first churning from the Guernsey cow in the churn, and if you would like to see it—"
She never finished the sentence, for I rushed past her so that she had to follow me into the milk-room. (Bee wanted me to call it "the dairy.")
I sat by while Katie churned and told stories. Then while she was turning it out, and I was raving over the colour of it, I heard a suspicious sniffing behind me, and behold, there was Mary, with her apron to her eyes, murmuring, brokenly, "My poor dear mother! Oh, my poor dear mother!"
Seeing that she had attracted my attention, she walked away, stumbling over the threshold to emphasize her grief.