"
"I know it, your Ladyship."
"Yes, what all doesn't one know, and yet one acts as though one did
_not_ know. Nothing can ever come of this."
"Nothing is supposed to come of it, your Ladyship."
"If you think she is an invalid you are reckoning without your host.
Invalids live the longest. Besides she has the black chicken. Beware
of it. It knows everything and tattles everything. I don't know, it
makes me shudder. And I'll wager all that business upstairs has some
connection with this chicken."
"Oh, I don't believe it. But it is terrible just the same, and Kruse,
who always sides himself against his wife, cannot talk me out of it."
"What did he say?"
"He said it was nothing but mice."
"Well, mice are quite bad enough. I can't bear mice. But, to change
the subject, I saw you chatting with Kruse, plainly, also your
familiar actions, and in fact I think you were going to paint a
moustache on his lip. That I call pretty far advanced. A little later
you will be jilted. You are still a smug person and have your charms.
But beware, that is all I have to say to you. Just what was your
experience the first time? Was it such that you can tell me about it?"
"Oh, I can tell you. But it was terrible. And because it was so
terrible, your Ladyship's mind can be perfectly easy with regard to
Kruse. A girl who has gone through what I did has enough of it and
takes care. I still dream of it occasionally and then I am all knocked
to pieces the next day.
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