This was too much for Jill's gravity, and it was only with an effort
that Daphne controlled her voice.

"I think that's very nice," she said shakily. "Don't you?" she added,
turning to me.

"Beautiful piece of work," I agreed. "Some of it appears to have been
done after dinner, but otherwise...."

"The pattern is invariably a little irregular, sir."

"Yes," said Berry. "That's what makes them so valuable. Their lives are
reflected in their rugs. Every mat is a human document." With the
ferrule of his umbrella he indicated a soft blue line that was straying
casually from the course which its fellows had taken. "That, for
instance, is where Ethel the Unready demanded a latchkey at the mature
age of sixty-two. And here we see Uncle Sennacherib fined two measures
of oil for being speechless before mid-day. I don't think we'd better
give her this one," he added. "She-bat the Satyr seems to have got going
about the middle, and from what I remember----"

"Haven't you got to go and get some socks?" said Daphne desperately.

"I have. Will you meet me for lunch, or shall I meet you? I believe they
do you very well at the Zoo."

The salesman retired precipitately into an office, and my sister
besought me tearfully to take her husband away.

"I might have known," she said in a choking voice. "I was a fool to