"No names given!" Mrs Bosenna in a temper was terribly handsome. Her indignation so overawed the pair, as to rob them of all presence of mind for the moment. After all, where lay the harm in asking Mr Benny to word a simple invitation? Since the letters had not reached her, she could suspect no worse; and why, then, all this fuss? So they might have reasoned it out, had not conscience held them cowards--conscience and a creeping cold shade of mutual distrust. "No names given!" repeated the lady. "And I'm to believe that, just as I'm to believe, sir,"--she addressed herself stiffly to 'Bias--"that you never used bad language in your life!" "I didn' say that, ma'am--not exactly," urged the bewildered 'Bias. "I dunno what's this about bad language. Who's been usin' bad language? Not me." "Not since your prize-fightin' days, perhaps, Captain Hunken." "My prize-fightin' days? My pr--Whoever told you, ma'am, as ever I had any, or behaved so?" "You had better ask your friend here." "Hey?" "Perhaps," said Mrs Bosenna sarcastically, "that goes back beyond your memory! Your parrot, if I may say so, has a better one." "Missus!" expostulated Dinah modestly, while "Oh good Lord!" muttered Cai with a start. His friend's eye was on him, too, fixed and suspicious. "The parrot?" 'Bias, albeit innocent, took alarm. "Why, what has he been doin'?" "It isn't anything he _did_, sir," protested Dinah, taking courage to face about again from the oven door. "It's what he _said_." "I meant to warn you--" began Cai; but 'Bias beat him down thunderously-- "What did he say?" he demanded of Dinah. "Oh, I couldn't, sir! I really couldn't!" "I meant to warn you," interposed Cai again. "There's a--a screw loose somewhere in that bird. Didn't I tell you only the night before last that Mrs Bowldler couldn't get along with him?" "You did," admitted 'Bias, his tone ominously calm. "But you didn' specify: not when I told you I was goin' to bring the bird up here to Rilla." "No, I didn': for, in the first place, I couldn', not knowin' what language the bird used." He would have said more, but 'Bias turned roughly from him to demand of the women-- "Well, what _did_ he say? . . . Did he say it in your hearin', ma'am?" "Ahem!--er--partially so," owned Mrs Bosenna. "It's no use you're askin' what he said," added Dinah; "for no decent woman could tell it. And, what's more, the mistress is takin' her breakfast here in the kitchen because she durstn't go nigh the parlour." "And I got that bird off a missionary! A decenter speakin' parrot I've never known, so far as my experience goes--and I've known a good few." "Folks have different notions on these matters; different standards, so to speak," suggested Mrs Bosenna icily. "It's my opinion," put in Cai, "that missionary did you in the eye." "Oh, that's your opinion, is it? Well, you'd best take care, my joker, or you'll get something in the eye yourself."