Now This Fairly Roused Her, For She Is A
Notable Housewife, Who Keeps Her House And Slaves In Exceedingly
Good Order.
So dismissing from her mind the commercial
consideration she had intended to gloat over when she came into her
room, she called Ingremina and others in a tone that brought those
young ladies on the spot.
She asked them how they dared forget to
light her lamp; they said they had not, but the lamp in the room
must have gone out like the other lamps had, after burning dim and
spluttering. They further said they had not been out, but had been
sitting round the fire trying to make it burn properly. She duly
whacked and pulled the ears of all within reach. I say within reach
for she is not very active, weighing, I am sure, upwards of eighteen
stone. Then she went back into her room and got out her beautiful
English paraffin lamp, which she keeps in a box, and taking it into
the cook-house, picked up a bit of wood from the hissing,
spluttering fire, and lit it. When she picked up the wood she
noticed that it was covered with the same sticky abomination she had
met before that evening, and it smelt of the same faint smell she
had noticed as soon as she had reached her house, and by now the
whole air seemed oppressive with it.
As soon as the lamp was alight she saw what the stuff was, namely,
blood.
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