I did long to say it was because I had promised Lady Ver I would not play with him that I was not talking to him now like the afternoon before. I wonder if he ever guessed it. Oh! I wished then, and I have wished a hundred times since, that I had never promised at all. It seemed as if it would be wisest to avoid him, as how could I explain the change in myself. I hated the food, and Malcolm had such an air of proprietorship, it annoyed me as much as I could see it annoyed Lady Katherine. I sniffed at him, and was as disagreeable as could be. The breakfasts there don’t shine, and porridge is pressed upon people by Mr. Montgomerie. “Capital stuff to begin the day, Bur-r-r-r,” he says. Lord Robert could not find anything he wanted, it seemed. Every one was peevish. Lady Katherine has a way of marshalling people on every occasion; she reminds me of a hen with chickens, putting her wings down, and clucking, and chasing, till they are all in a corner. And she is rather that shape, too, very much rounded in front. The female brood soon found themselves in the morning-room, with the door shut, and no doubt the male things fared the same with their host, anyway we saw no more of them till we caught sight of them passing the windows in ’scutums and mackintoshes, a depressed company of sportsmen. The only fortunate part was that Malcolm had found no opportunity to remind me of my promise, whatever it was, and I felt safer. Oh! that terrible morning! Much worse than when we were alone--nearly all of them--about seven women beyond the family--began fancy work. One, a Lady Letitia Smith, was doing a crewel silk blotting-book that made me quite bilious to look at, and she was very short-sighted, and had such an irritating habit of asking every one to match her threads for her. They knitted ties and stockings, and crocheted waistcoats and comforters and hoods for the North Sea fishermen, and one even tatted. Just like housemaids do in their spare hours to trim Heaven knows what garment of unbleached calico. I asked her what it was for, and she said for the children’s pinafores in her “Guild” work. If one doesn’t call that waste of time, I wonder what is! Mrs. Carruthers said it was much more useful to learn to sit still and not fidget than to fill the world with rubbish like this. Mary Mackintosh dominated the conversation. She and Lady Letitia Smith, who have both small babies, revelled in nursery details, and then whispered bits for us--the young girls--not to hear. We caught scraps though, and it sounded gruesome, whatever it was about. Oh! I do wonder when I get married if I shall grow like them. I hope not. It is no wonder married men are obliged to say gallant things to other people, if, when they get home, their wives are like that.