Page:The Climber (Benson).djvu/101

Rh Aunt Cathie snorted.

"Yes, you may interrupt me, Catherine," said Elizabeth, "and I am sure I make no complaint. But when it comes to having millionaires and peers of the realm to lunch, while you go and look at broad beans without a hat afterwards, it is enough to cover me with blushes for my sister. Pray do not allude to the matter again."

"I didn't," said Cathie.

"You may think you didn't, but let us dismiss the affair, unless you wish to lay the blame on me. Let us talk about Littlestone. As I say, it will mean that we take Sea View Cottage for six weeks, and I'm sure the garden stuff that they let us have there doesn't pay for the fire we use to cook it with. And as for broiling here like beefsteaks, it will be well if we've got the money to pay for the broiling of one."

"But who talked about going there for six weeks?" cried Cathie, determined to get her word in. "I only meant to telegraph to Mrs. Morris to ask if we could have Sea View from the fifteenth of this month till the fifteenth of next month, instead of having it through September. You speak so hastily, Elizabeth, and tell me that I mean to do all sorts of things that never entered my head."

"Pray telegraph all over the country, then," said Elizabeth.

She rose and took her egg out of the copper egg-boiler and cracked it in silence.

"It was as if he did it to spite us," she said, "though I am sure that I don't wish to speak evil of the dead. But if a man of his age can't walk downstairs without falling on his head at the bottom, they ought to have somebody to look after him. I don't blame him; I blame those who should have seen what his condition was. People with fits should not be allowed to rampage all over the house.

She sniffed doubtfully at her egg, and then put it by.

"It is better economy, Catherine," she said, "to pay three-halfpence for an egg you can eat than a penny for one you can't. Perhaps after this you will allow me to go back to Mr. Tibbit, instead of making me buy eggs and butter from Johnson's wife. I make no complaint."

"Try another," said Cathie.

"I will not," said Elizabeth, rather excitedly. "Though Lucia may choose to come down to breakfast at the time when they ought to be laying for lunch, I do not wish to deprive her of