"You have no business to listen to servants' conversation; but if you do, pray spare us the repetition!" said Rowena in her most grown-up manner. Maud reflected that ever since mother had spoken of the new arrangement about lessons, Ro had talked exactly like a governess, and been just as snappy as snappy. She bounced on her seat, and wagged her head in the obstinate manner which she adopted upon provocation. "I don't listen, but I have ears, and if people speak I am obliged to hear. Mary came into the room to dust. Nurse was darning the tablecloth. It's all gone into holes where Gurth spilt the chemical acid. It's the one with the little shamrocks for a pattern. So Nurse said: `Drat those boys!' and licked the cotton with her tongue, and--" Hereward and Gurth exchanged glances of resigned boredom, but Dreda drummed her heels on the floor, and called aloud with startling emphasis: "Go on! Go on! Who wants to hear about tablecloth patterns, and licking threads? Keep to your point, if you have a point to stick to! If Rowena's is going to give you lessons, she'd better begin by teaching you not to be such a bore. You go prosing on and on--" "I don't. I'm not. Bore yourself! 'Twas most intrusting!" insisted Maud, stolidly. "They were sort of talking about us all, in a sort of way as if I couldn't understand, and I understood all the time, and they said we were rejuiced, and I asked you a simple question what it meant. When you're perlite to other people, other people should be perlite to you in return." "All right, Maud, keep calm, keep calm! You reduce a thing by taking something from it. We are reduced because something--a great deal--has been taken away from our income, and what remains is not enough to go round. I expect the second housemaid will be sent packing, and you will have to make the beds." Maud squealed with dismay, then with a gleam of shrewdness nodded her head, and prophesied sagely: "It would be worse for you than me if I did! I'd make them full of crumples. I'd get hold of the ends of the clothes, and _Hop_ them down all together like Mary does when it's her Sunday out, and she's in a hurry. _Then_ you'd be in a rage when you got in and your toes stuck out!"