"there is a great deal for
you to do in this world before you die."

"Yes, but you see, darling," said Betty, "if I don't die soon, I shall
be too old to sit on Jesus' knee."

Diana is very particular about the children's manners, and Hugh came
face to face with a great difficulty a moment later, over his ginger
beer. "If I don't say I thank you, mother doesn't like it, and if I do
say I thank you, Bindon stops pouring."

Chapter VI

In answer to a really desperate telegram from Zerlina, I left Hames
hurriedly, and arrived at Zerlina's, to find her out and all the
children apparently well. I was shown upstairs into the drawing-room. In
Diana's house I am never "shown" anywhere; however, in Zerlina's I am,
so it is no use discussing that question. The drawing-room into which I
was shown was empty of furniture except for the sofas and chairs which
were arranged round the room against the wall. As Zerlina's room does
not err as a rule on the side of emptiness, I realized that there was
going to be a party. I felt like the child who said, "There's been a
wedding, I smell rice!" One knows these things by instinct.

The butler solemnly informed me that there was going to be a party, and
that Miss Hyacinth would be down in a moment.

I thought it odd that Zerlina should have said nothing about a party;
but then she never says anything about measles, or whooping-cough, or
re-painting rooms, until I am within the doors and unable to escape. I
remembered she had urged me on this occasion to come early. I sat down
on a sofa and sadly fixed my gaze on the parquet floor. How different
had been my arrival at Hames! My conscience smote me. I had no train, no
cooking stove, no woolly rabbit in my box. But then neither was there
a Hugh, Betty, and Sara. At Hames should I have sat in the drawing-room?
Never! Of course I know what some people will say: that it is my fault;
if I had treated the children as I treated Betty, Hugh, and Sara, it
would have made all the difference; but it wouldn't, really. It is, the
mother of the children who makes the difference; it is her attitude to
the aunt which is adopted by the children. If Diana had been out,
the house would have resounded with shrieks for Aunt Woggles. But in
Zerlina's house children never shriek, people never rush to the nursery.
The children are always tidied before they are brought down to see me.

Of course some people will again say, "Quite right"; and it is quite