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"Which, having been detained, we might make an 'igh tea of it," she suggested, "and venture on the wing of a goose. Stuffing at this hour I would 'ardly 'int at, being onion and apt to recur." But Captain Hocken desired no more than tea and toast. Mrs Bowldler was intelligently sympathetic, because Fancy had called early in the afternoon and brought some enlightenment.
She dotes on it 'I dreamt that I dwelt' in particular." "Which," said Mrs Bowldler to Palmerston later on, as they sat drinking in that ditty, one on either side of the kitchen table, "it can't sing, but the words is that I dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls with Princes and Peers by my si-i-ide just like that. Princes!" She leaned back in the cheap chair and closed her eyes.
Thereupon he fled in quest of the lamp. Cai and 'Bias supped together that night, greatly to Mrs Bowldler's relief. But they exchanged a very few words during the meal, being poor hands at dissimulation. The meal, for the third time running, was laid in Cai's parlour, Mrs Bowldler having delicately elected to ignore the upset caused by the parrot and to treat yesterday as a dies non.
"Mrs Bosenna?" echoed Mrs Bowldler, who had by this time arisen from the stair. She drew her skirts close with a gesture of dignity. "It is not for me to drag Mrs Bosenna into our conversation, sir far from it, and I hope I know my place better. For aught I know, Captain Hocken if, as a menial, I may use the term " "Not at all," said Captain Cai vaguely, as she paused with elaborate humility.
"Dry your eyes, you silly boy," she commanded. Palmerston obeyed and stood blinking at her alternately at her and at his handkerchief which he held tightly crumpled into a pad; whereupon she demanded, somewhat cruelly: "Now, what have you to say for yourself?" He was endeavouring to answer when Mrs Bowldler came running in and caught up the other tea-tray.
"Stand-offish should be your expression when waiting at table; like as if you'd heard it all before several times, no matter how funny they talk. As for splitting, I shiver at the bare thought." "Well, I didn't do it, really. I just got my hand over my mouth in time." "And what did that other woman happen to be doing?" asked Mrs Bowldler. "I partic'l'ly noticed," said Palmerston.
Behold, now, on the morning of the Demonstration, Captain Caius Hocken, School Manager and therefore ex officio a steward, taking the field in his Sunday best with a scarlet badge in his buttonhole, "quite," declared Mrs Bowldler, "like a gentleman of the French Embassy as used frequent to take luncheon with us in the Square."
"I'll have to write the next one about low life," said Palmerston. "If only I knew a bit more about it! Mrs Bowldler says it can be rendered quite amusin', and I wouldn' mind makin' myself the 'ero." "Wouldn't you? Well, I should, and don't you let me catch you at it! The man as I marry'll have to keep his head up and show a proper respect for his-self." Poor Palmerston stared.
The best women in the world will never understand an artist. If this thing had happened ? After Fancy left him Cai dropped into his armchair, and sat for a long while staring at the paper ornament with which Mrs Bowldler had decorated his summer hearth.
"Which," Mrs Bowldler reported to Fancy, who had left her master's sick-bed to pay a fleeting visit to Palmerston's, "the treatment was drastic for a growin' child. First of all Mrs Bosenna, that never had a child of her own, sent down to the cabin for the mustard that had been left over from the Sailin' Committee's sangwidges, and mixed up a drink with it and a little cold water.
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