"Oh wait, my dear, till you have a child. You ridiculous baby."
"Oh come, Jerrold's every bit as gone on him."
"You're a ridiculous pair," said Adeline.
"If Nicky purred round your legs, you'd love him, too," said Anne.
iv
Uncle Robert was not well. He couldn't eat the things he used to eat; he had to have fish or chicken and milk and beef-tea and Benger's food. Jerrold said it was only indigestion and he'd be all right in a day or two. But you could see by the way he walked now that there was something quite dreadfully wrong. He went slowly, slowly, as if every step tired him out.
"Sorry, Jerrold, to be so slow."
But Jerrold wouldn't see it.
They had gone down to the Manor Farm, he and Jerrold and Anne. He wanted to show Jerrold the prize stock and what heifers they could breed from next year. "I should keep on with the short horns. You can't do better," he said.
Then they had gone up the fields to see if the wheat was ready for cutting yet. And he had kept on telling Jerrold what crops were to be sown after the wheat, swedes to come first, and vetch after the swedes, to crowd out the charlock.