actively about. “I’ll just move that old fern.”
“Oh of course ” mocked Harriett, “ look at the importance …”
Whistling softly Gerald placed a small square box on the table amongst the breakfast things.
“ Oh dear me,” moaned Harriett from behind the coffee pot, smirking coyly backwards over her shoulder, “hoh, ar’n’t we grand.” “It’s the new toy ” she rapped avertedly towards Miriam, in a despairing whisper. Gerald interrupted his whistling to fix on to the box a sort of trumpet, a thing that looked like a wide-open green nasturtium.
“Is it a musical box?” asked Miriam.
“D’you mean to say you’ve never seen a gramophone yet?” murmured Gerald, frowning and flicking away dust with his handkerchief. They did not mean as much as they appeared to do when they said life was not worth living … they had not discovered life. Gerald did not know the meaning of his interest in things. “People grieve and bemoan themselves, but it is not half so bad with them as they say.” …