“Oh, no trouble! I mean, of course, we are very much upset, and I don’t quite know what we can give you, but if you will stay we will do our best!”
“Now, Mr Talbot, listen to me!” interrupted Nan decisively. “There are two alternatives open to you, and you can take your choice. Would you rather sit here by yourself, looking at albums and illustrated books while Mary changes her dress, and cook flies into a temper preparing a proper dinner, and Jane helps to tidy the dining-room, and Maud ransacks the store—room, and Elsie polishes up silver, and Chrissie cuts flowers, and I—”
Ned Talbot threw up his hands in despair.
“Mercy! What next? Please stop, Nan. You make me feel the most shocking intruder. If I am to cause such an upset, the sooner I rush back to the station the better. What is the alternative? Tell it me at once. You said I had a choice!”
“The alternative,” said Nan slowly, beaming upon him the while, in a friendly, encouraging fashion, “the alternative is what would happen to us if we were alone, and you had not arrived. Dinner in the schoolroom, with the library pictures ranged along the walls, and the books piled on the floor. No flowers—no fruit—no waiting—no evening dress. Everything on the table at once, and very little of that. Cold beef—very good cold beef! I’ll answer for that, for we’ve had it two days already—potatoes in their jackets, perhaps one other vegetable...”
“Nan!” cried Maud protestingly; but Talbot gazed at her with a smile, shadowed only by a faint anxiety.
“Pickles?” he queried eagerly. “Put my mind at rest on that point before we go any further! Surely there are pickles?”
“Pickles, cer-tainly! As many as you like; but mostly onions, I am afraid, for we like the cauliflowery bits best, and poke about with the fork to get them out first. But there are lots of onions. Cold beef and pickles, then, and something plain and wholesome in the shape of a pudding, such as stewed prunes and rice; biscuits and cheese to follow; and a really good cup of coffee made by our own fair hands.”
“It’s a feast for the gods! Nothing I should like better. Don’t you know, Nan, that nine out of ten Englishmen would rather be set down opposite a joint of meat than half a dozen kickshaws! It will be like old times to have a meal in the schoolroom, and if you will really let me stay, and treat me exactly like one of yourselves, I shall enjoy it more than a dozen dinner parties. You will promise faithfully to make no alteration whatever in the menu?”
“Certainly, if you wish it.”