The approach of Death had made Magnolia amazingly garrulous. She said more to them that morning than she had said to them all the rest of the time she had been in their service ... and mixed up with her reminiscences of what Mrs. Clutters had said to her and what she had said to Mrs. Clutters, there was a continual statement of her fear and dislike of death, followed by the assertion that no one 'ad ever died in a house she'd worked in before.
"You'd think she was blaming us for it," Gilbert said afterwards.
"Well, you'd better go and ask her to tell you where her husband lives," Henry said to her, but she shrunk away from him when he said that.
"Oh, I couldn't go near no one what was dyin'," she said. "I ain't used to it, an' I don't like it!"
Ninian shoved her aside. "I'll go," he said.
"We'd better get some one to look after her," Gilbert proposed when Ninian had gone. "Magnolia's no damn good!..."
"No, sir, I ain't ... not with dead people I ain't!"
"Clear out, Magnolia!" Gilbert shouted at her. "Go and make the beds or sit in the kitchen or something!"
"Yes, sir, certainly, sir!" Magnolia answered, and then she left the room.
"I've never felt such a helpless ass in my life before," Gilbert went on when she had shut the door behind her. "I simply don't know what to do!"