"Something!" echoed Mrs. Bartholomew. "Just imagine, that we are to gather in a company of cripples round our dinner table! Send out and ask all the forlorn creatures we can find, and feed them on game and sweetbreads. It looks like it!"
"And give up entertaining our friends," added Mrs. Laval.
"What friends do we entertain, aunt Zara?" David asked. "You do not care much for most of them."
"You are a ridiculous, absurd, fanatical boy!" said Judy. "What nonsense you do talk!"
"Nonsense that would make an end of all civilization," said Mrs. Laval; not quite logically.
"But do you care much for these people you invite?" David persisted.
"Not singly," Mrs. Laval admitted; "but taken together, I care a great deal. At least they are people of our own rank and standing in society, and we can understand what they talk about."
"But what do the words mean?" Mrs. Lloyd asked.
"Why mother," said Mrs. Bartholomew, "you have read them a thousand times. They mean what they always did."
"I don't think I ever raised the question till this minute," said Mrs. Lloyd. "In fact, I don't think I knew the words were there. And I should like to know now what they mean."