agitated voice.

They waited for her to add "Certainly, sir!" but she did not do so, and
they looked oddly at each other, feeling that something unusual had
happened.

"We're waiting for breakfast," Roger said in a less impatient voice.

"Yes, sir, I'm comin', sir!..."

Magnolia appeared at the door, very red in the face and very worried in
her looks, and placed a covered dish in front of Roger who was the
father of the four, appointed to carve and to serve.

"What's this?" Roger demanded when he had removed the cover.

"Please, sir, it's eggs, sir! Fried eggs, sir! That's what it's supposed
to be, sir!" Magnolia replied dubiously.

"It's a bad imitation, Magnolia!" Gilbert said. "I think I'll just have
bread and marmalade this morning!"

He reached for the marmalade as he spoke, and Henry, eyeing the eggs
with disrelish, murmured, "After you, Gilbert!"

"Tell Mrs. Clutters I want her," Roger said to Magnolia.

"Please, sir, she's not very well in herself this mornin'...."

"Not very well!"

"Do you mean to say she's ill?" Ninian shouted.

"Yes, sir. It was me fried the eggs, sir!"

"But ... but she can't be ill," Ninian continued.

"Well, she is, sir. That's what she says any'ow. 'You'll 'ave to cook
the breakfis yourself', she says to me, an' when I said I didn't know
'ow, she said 'Well, you must do the best you can, that's all!' an' I
done it, sir. She don't look well at all!..."

"How long has she been ill?" Roger asked.

"I don't know, sir. She didn't tell me. She was groanin' a bit yesterday
an' the day before, but she wouldn't give in. I said to 'er, 'If I was
you, Mrs. Clutters, I'd 'ave a doctor an' chance it!' an' she told me to
'old me tongue, so of course I wasn't goin' to say no more, not after
that. I mean to say, I can take a 'int as good as any one...."

"We'd better send for a doctor," Roger said, interrupting Magnolia.
"I'll telephone to Dunroon. He lives quite near!" Then he remembered his
county court case. "You'd better telephone, Quinny! I _must_ catch this
train. Take these ... eggs away, Magnolia. We won't say anything more
about them. You did your best!"

"Yes, sir, I did, but I told 'er I didn't know 'ow...."

"All right!" said Roger, passing the dish to her.

3

Dr. Dunroon suggested that they should send for Mrs. Clutters' friends.

"Is it serious, doctor?" Henry asked, and the doctor nodded his head.
"She's dying," he said.

"Dying!"

Magnolia, disregarding