“Why, no you didn’t!—at least that summer.”
“Oh, no, not that summer. No, you are perfectly right about that. It was the following winter that I said it.”
“Well, as it turned out, Mary was not in the least to blame—it was all her father’s fault—at least his and old Darley’s.”
It was necessary to say something—so I said:
“I always regarded Darley as a troublesome old thing.”
“So he was, but then they always had a great affection for him, although he had so many eccentricities. You remember that when the weather was the least cold, he would try to come into the house.”
I was rather afraid to proceed. Evidently Darley was not a man—he must be some other kind of animal—possibly a dog, maybe an elephant. However, tails are common to all animals, so I ventured to say:
“And what a tail he had!”
“One! He had a thousand!”
This was bewildering. I did not quite know what to say, so I only said: