"I had no idea you wrote. Would you let me see something? Then I
could judge."

The author shook his head. "I don't show it to any one. It isn't
anything. I just try because it amuses me."

"What is it about?"

"Silly nonsense."

"Are you ever going to show it to any one?"

"I don't think so."

Mr. Pembroke did not reply, firstly, because the meringue he was
eating was, after all, Rickie's; secondly, because it was gluey
and stuck his jaws together. Agnes observed that the writing was
really a very good idea: there was Rickie's aunt,--she could push
him.

"Aunt Emily never pushes any one; she says they always rebound
and crush her."

"I only had the pleasure of seeing your aunt once. I should have
thought her a quite uncrushable person. But she would be sure to
help you."

"I couldn't show her anything. She'd think them even sillier than
they are."