“No, you should be the one,” said Malkin.
“No, you, brother Malkin.”
“No, no; you, brother Nibby.”
“Goodness gracious me!” cried Merrimeg, more and more out of patience. “For mercy’s sake come along! Don’t let’s stay here talking all day! Let’s hurry, hurry!”
“She’s not very polite, brother,” said Malkin.
“Not very, indeed,” said Nibby. “I noticed it myself.”
Each of the gnomes took a lighted candle from the table; then they opened a door in the floor of the kitchen and went down a ladder, and Merrimeg went down after them.
When they were at the bottom, in a dark tunnel, lit only by the candles carried by the gnomes, Malkin stopped and said:
“We mustn’t forget to have that roof fixed.”
“No, we mustn’t forget that,” said Nibby.