Brodrick said, "Gertrude doesn't bore anybody."
"She doesn't bore you, Uncle Hugh, of course, because you're a man."
(Winny said that.)
"Then," said Eddy, "there's us. You know, we're an awful family for a woman like Jinny to have married into. There isn't one of us fit to black her boots. And I believe Uncle Henry thinks she wasn't made for anything except to bring more of us into the world."
Brodrick's face displayed a fine flush.
"You're all right, Uncle Hugh."
Brodrick lowered his eyelids in modest acceptance of this tribute.
"I keep forgetting you're one of them, because you married her."
"What else did you say to him?"
Eddy became excited. "Oh—I got in one before we left—I landed him neatly. I asked him why on earth—if he thought she was neurotic—he let her shut herself up for a whole year with that screaming kid, when any fat nurse would have done the job as well? And why he let her break her neck, running round after Aunt Mabel? I had him there."