The carve must have been stupid, but I knew no better." "Well," I rejoined, "you must forgive the bird, as we must excuse you for spoiling our breakfast.

I will contrive that you shall know more of fruits and flowers before long.

In the meantime, you will probably have a different if not a wider view from this roof than from that of your Nursery." After all, Eunane's girlhood, typical of the whole life of many Martial women, had not, I suppose, been more dreary or confined than that of children in London, Canton, or Calcutta.

But this incident, reminding me how dreary and limited that life was, served to excuse in my eyes the pettiness and poverty of the characters it had produced.

A Martial woman's whole experience may well be confined within a few acres, and from the cradle to the grave she may see no more of the world than can be discerned from the roof of her school or her husband's home.
Eunane, with the assistance of the ambau, busied herself in removing the remains of the meal.