Lady Maisie (sitting down). I can't imagine what there is to explain—and really I ought, if Phillipson——
Und. You know what maids are, Lady Maisie. They embroider. Unintentionally, I daresay, but still, they do embroider.
Lady Maisie (puzzled). She is very clever at mending lace, I know, though what that has to do with it——
Und. Listen to me, Lady Maisie. I came to this house at your bidding. Yes, but for your written appeal, I should have treated the invitation I received from your Aunt with silent contempt. Had I obeyed my first impulse and ignored it, I should have been spared humiliations and indignities which ought rather to excite your pity than—than any other sensation. Think—try to realise what my feelings must have been when I found myself expected by the butler here to sit down to supper with him and the upper servants in the Housekeeper's Room!
Lady Maisie (shocked). Oh, Mr. Blair! Indeed, I had no——You weren't really! How could they? What did you say?
Und. (haughtily). I believe I let him know my opinion of the snobbery of his employers in treating a guest of theirs so cavalierly.
Lady Maisie (distressed). But surely—surely you couldn't suppose that my Uncle and Aunt were capable of——?
Und. What else could I suppose under the circumstances? It is true I have since learnt that I was mistaken in this particular instance; but I am not ignorant of the ingrained contempt you Aristocrats have for all who live by exercising their intellect—the bitter scorn of Birth for Brains!
Lady Maisie. I am afraid the—the contempt is all on the other side; but if that is how you feel about it, I don't wonder that you were indignant.
Und. Indignant! I was furious. In fact, nothing would have induced me to sit down to supper at all, if it hadn't been for——