13/18 If I had invited you to stay with us you would have been simply bored to death. Amusement, social obligations, the duties we owe to society, do not belong to my mother's creed at all. If I might borrow a word from a renowned novelist, I would call her 'a charitable grinder,' for she grinds from morning till night at a never-ceasing wheel of committees, meetings, and Heaven knows what besides." "She reminds me of the immortal Mrs.Jellyby," observed Cedric airily; but Malcolm shook his head. My mother is a clear-headed, practical woman. She manages her house herself, and the domestic machinery goes like clockwork. |