lyn-Jones were after destroying me with the cutting of the sandwiches. And
was I not there for three days, from the rising of the blessed sun to the
shining of the blessed stars, cutting and cutting, and never a soul to bear
witness to the destroying labour of it, and the two legs of me like to give
way with the great weariness (_keens_)? I'll have no call this year to be
giving in to their prayers and beseechings, and I won't care the way the
Curate will be after trying to come round me, with his eyes looking at me
the way the moon kisses the drops of dew on the hedgerows when the road is
white.

[_Opens another letter, keening the while in a slightly higher key.
Enter_ Gertrude Smith-Hybrow. _She crosses to the window and stares
out._

_Gertrude._ There are black clouds in the sky, and the wind is breaking in
the west and making a great stir with the trees, and they are hitting one
on the other. And there is rain falling, falling from the clouds, and the
roads be wet.

_Mrs. S.-H._ It is your mackintosh you will be wanting when you are after
going to the Stores.

_Gertrude_ (_coming to the table and speaking with dull resentment_). And
why should I be going to the Stores the way I have enough to do with a
meeting of the League for Brighter Homes and a luncheon of the Cubist
Encouragement Society? Isn't it a queer hard thing that Dora cannot be
going to the Stores, and her with time enough on her hands surely?

[_Sits in her place and begins keening. While she has been speaking
Dora has entered hurriedly, buttoning her jumper._

_Dora_ (_vigorously_). And is it you, Gertrude Smith-Hybrow, that will be
talking about me having time on my hands? May the saints forgive you for
the hard words, and me having to cycle this blessed day to Mrs.
Montgomery's lecture on the Dadaist Dramatists, and the meringues and the
American creams to be made for to-night's Tchekoff Conversazione. Is it not
enough for a girl to be destroyed with the play-acting, and the wind like
to be in my face the whole way and the rain falling, falling?

[_Sits in her place and keens._

_Mrs. S.-H._ (_after an interval of keening_). Is it your father that will
be missing his train this morning, Dora Smith-Hybrow?

_Dora_ (_rousing herself and selecting an egg_). It is my father that will
be missing his train entirely, and it is his son that would this minute be
sleeping the blessed daylight away had I not let fall upon him