I rang the tortoise sharply. The encyclopædia should be made to divulge that which I wished to know. I would not be hoodwinked.
"Please bring me volumes PHY, LOC, PAR, PAT, and SUR," I said to Amelia, who was buttoning her black bodice all wrong. "And where's your cap?"
"In my pocket, mum." She produced it, fastening it on wrong end foremost with two hair-pins which once might have been black.
"It is an unsuitable place to keep it," I pronounced. "And where are your cuffs?"
Amelia smiled.
"They've melted, mum. I forgot they was india-rubber, and I put them into the oven after washing them, and when I went for them they was just drippin'."
I sighed deeply.
"Well, bring me the volumes. Do you remember which I mentioned?"
"No, mum."
"I will write them down for you."