'Yes,' proceeded Nurse Wilks, pursuing the subject, 'you never could have enough eggs. Nor cake. Dear me, how sick you made yourself with cake that day at Miss Jane's birthday party.'
'Please!' said Miss Oliphant, with a slight shiver.
She looked coldly at her fermenting fellow-guest, as he sat plumbing the deepest abysses of self-loathing.
'No eggs for me, thank you,' he said.
'Master Frederick, you will eat your nice boiled eggs,' said Nurse Wilks. Her voice was still amiable, but there was a hint of dynamite behind it.
'I don't want any eggs.'
'Master Frederick!' The dynamite exploded. Once again that amazing transformation had taken place, and a frail little old woman had become an intimidating force with which only a Napoleon could have reckoned. 'I will not have this sulking.'
Frederick gulped.
'I'm sorry,' he said, meekly. 'I should enjoy an egg.'
'Two eggs,' corrected Nurse Wilks.