LAURA. I'm not a child, Julia.

JULIA (_beautifully ignoring_). A little more coal, please, Hannah.
(_Then to her sister as she pours out the tea._) And how did you leave
everybody?

LAURA. Oh, pretty much as usual. Most of them having colds. That's how I
got mine. Mrs. Hilliard came to call and left it behind her. I went out
with it in an east wind and that finished me.

JULIA. Oh, but how provoking! (_She wishes to be sympathetic; but this is
a line of conversation she instinctively avoids._)

LAURA. _No_, Julia! . . . (_This, delivered with force, arrests the
criminal intention._) _No_ sugar. To think of your forgetting that!

JULIA (_most sweetly_). Milk?

LAURA. Yes, you know I take milk.

(_Crossing over, but sitting away from the tea-table, she lets her sister
wait on her._)

JULIA. Did Martha send me any message?

LAURA. How could she? She didn't know I was coming.

JULIA. Was it so sudden?

LAURA. I sent for her and she didn't come. Think of that!

JULIA. Oh! She would be sorry. Tea-cake?

LAURA (_taking the tea-cake that is offered her_). I'm not so sure. She
was nursing Edwin's boy through the measles, so of course _I_ didn't
count. (_Nosing suspiciously._) Is this China tea?

JULIA. If you like to think it. You have as you choose. How is our
brother, Edwin?

LAURA. His wife's more trying than ever. Julia, what a fool that woman
is!

JULIA. Well, let's hope he doesn't know it.

LAURA. He must know. I've told him. She sent a wreath to my funeral,
'With love and fond affection, from Emily.' Fond fiddlesticks! Humbug!
She knows I can't abide her.

JULIA. I suppose she thought it was the correct thing.

LAURA. And I doubt if it cost more than ten shillings. Now Mrs.
Dobson--you remember her: she lives in Tudor Street with a daughter one
never sees--something wrong in her head, and has fits--she sent me a
cross of lilies, white lilac, and stephanotis, as handsome as you could
wish; and a card--I forget what was on the card. . . . Julia, when you
died----

JULIA. Oh, don't Laura!

LAURA. Well, you did die, didn't you?

JULIA. Here one doesn't talk of it. That's over. There are things you
will have to learn.

LAURA. What I was going to say was--when I died I found my sight was much
better. I could read all the cards without my glasses. Do _you_ use
glasses?

JULIA. Sometimes, for association. I have these of our dear Mother's in
her tortoise-shell case.

LAURA. That reminds me.