"I make it a rule to try everything," she said.

"Don't you think it would be very annoying if you tasted ginger for the first time on your death-bed, and found you never liked anything so much?
I should be so exceedingly annoyed that I think I should get well on that account alone." She was now successful, and a lump of ginger emerged on the end of the button-hook.

While she went to wipe the button-hook, Rachel bit the ginger and at once cried, "I must spit it out!" "Are you sure you have really tasted it ?" Miss Allan demanded.
For answer Rachel threw it out of the window.
"An experience anyhow," said Miss Allan calmly.

"Let me see--I have nothing else to offer you, unless you would like to taste this." A small cupboard hung above her bed, and she took out of it a slim elegant jar filled with a bright green fluid.
"Creme de Menthe," she said.

"Liqueur, you know.