"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 the conventions, had stood by, openly listening to what they were saying, and when she heard the doctor say that Mrs. Clutters was dying, she let a howl out of her that startled them. The doctor turned to her quickly. "Hold your tongue," he said, "or she'll hear you. Anybody 'ud think you were dying by the noise you're making!" Magnolia blubbered away. "I 'ate to 'ear of anybody dyin'," she said. "I never been in a 'ouse before where it's 'appened, an' besides she's been good to me!" Her mind wandered off at a tangent "Any'ow," she said, wiping her eyes, "I done me best. No one can't never say I ain't done me best, an' the best can't do no more!" "Has she got any friends, Magnolia?..." It seemed to them to be extraordinary that this woman had lived in their house, had worked and cared for them, and yet was so much a stranger to them that now, in this time of her coming dissolution, they did not know where her friends were to be found, whether indeed, she had any friends. "That's very English," Henry thought; "in Ireland we know all about our servants!" "Well, I _think_ 'e's 'er 'usband," Magnolia replied. "Any'ow, 'e was drunk when 'e come!..." They had assumed that Mrs. Clutters was a widow, a childless widow.... "I've seen 'im 'angin' about two-three times, an' when I said to 'er, 'Mrs. Clutters, there's your friend 'angin' about the corner of the street, she tole me to mind me own business, an' then she 'urried out. Of course, it 'adn't got nothink to do with me, 'oo 'e was, an' when she tole me to mind me own business, I took the 'int...." "Do you know where he lives?" Gilbert asked. "No, sir, I don't. When she told me to mind me own business!..."