"That is very dreadful," replied the little girl earnestly, "but I hope you keep out of debt."
The game had gone too far for Lady Bountiful's enjoyment of it.
"You are a very rude and impertinent child," she burst out, "to speak like that, and to me."
The child became apologetic. "I'm sure I didn't mean to be, ma'am," she explained. "But mother told me before I came that I was to be sure to speak to you like a lady, and when any ladies call on us, they always ask us those questions."
A gentleman who had married his cook was giving a dinner party and between the courses the good lady sat with her hands spread on the tablecloth.
Suddenly the burr of conversation ceased and in the silence that followed a young man on the right of his hostess said, pleasantly:
"Awful pause!"
"Yes, they may be," said the old-time cook, with heightened color; "and yours would be like them if you had done half my work."