McTaggart felt a wild desire to laugh aloud, as from the window the parrot indulged in a hoarse and fervent "Damn!"
"Oh!" Miss Uniacke rose to her feet. "You _bad_ bird. You shall go to bed----" She seized a green baize cloth and threw it nimbly over the cage. "I can't _think_ where he learns these words."
At the shocked note in her voice McTaggart straightened his face.
"I expect he lived with a Suffragette before he came to you," he suggested--"and once they get the fever, you know, it's all up with their morals. He'll be out breaking windows next!"
"Well----" she laid her knitting down and folded her slim white hands. "I've made up my mind, Mr. McTaggart. I can't allow Jill to suffer. I'm much obliged for your kind offer but there's a better way by far. I shall go and look after Mary myself."
"It will be an excellent opportunity to break her of this Suffrage nonsense." She caught McTaggart's look of alarm. "Don't be afraid--I'm a capital nurse--I mean, of course, when she's convalescent. What she wants now is rest and sleep--and good food. Did you say they hadn't a cook?"
"I don't think so--I understand she left, furious, on the day Mrs. Uniacke went to prison."
"I don't blame her." The silk dress rustled. "Then there's only that slatternly housemaid left to help Jill?"
"So I gather--unless Stephen condescends to black the boots!"
"Ha!" The little lady snorted--"So _he's_ about still, is he?"
McTaggart was conscious of a slip. He wished he hadn't mentioned the man.
"I can't say. I know he's at large. I don't fancy prison fare appeals to him--he's rather dainty."
Miss Uniacke's bright eyes surveyed him almost lovingly--"Well--he won't enter that house while I'm there," she decided tartly.
"Now, to business"--she went on, after a pause, "I'll shut up the flat as soon as I can. I always do for the Summer months and it's only a few weeks earlier--and take both my maids with me. Anyhow, until I can get the house in order and find a cook for Mary. Maria's a good nurse. She's been with me eighteen years and Mrs. Belsey understands invalid soups--she's an excellent woman and a strict teetotaller. So you can set your mind at rest--about Jill, I mean." She smiled as McTaggart rose to his feet. "Come and see us when you like. I'm very much obliged to you. It's not often nowadays you find young men with any sense. The world's all upside down, with feeble boys and manly women!"