“Oh, rot!” said Sis, in a scornfull maner. “While you help your bank account, you mean. I don’t object to that, father, but for Heaven’s sake don’t put it on altruistic grounds.”
She went upstairs then and banged her door, and mother merely set her lips and said nothing. But when Beresford called, later, Tanney had to tell him the Familey was out.
Were it not for our afections, and the necessity for getting married, so there would be an increase in the Population, how happy we could all be!
Later: I have seen father.
It was a painfull evening, with Sis shut away in her room, and father cuting the ends off cigars in a viscious maner. Mother was non est, and had I not had my memories, it would have been a Sickning Time.
I sat very still and waited until father softened, which he usualy does, like ice cream, all at once and all over. I sat perfectly still in a large chair, and except for an ocasional sneaze, was quiet.
Only once did my parent adress me in an hour, when he said:
“What the devil’s making you sneaze so?”
“My noze, I think, sir,” I said meekly.
“Humph!” he said. “It’s rather a small noze to be making such a racket.”