"I'd kill 'em."

"There, you see--then how can you expect poor nurse to like it?"

"You don't understand, cousin--Tom said to George the groom that Mrs.
Jones was an--old--stingy--b--"

"I don't want to hear anything about Tom."

"He is such a clever fellow, cousin. So I think, if Jones is an old
one, those two that keep nagging me must be young ones. What do you
think yourself?" asked Reginald, appealing suddenly to her candor.

"And no doubt it was Tom that taught you this other vulgar word
'nagging,'" was the evasive reply.

"No, that was mamma."

Lucy colored, wheeled quickly, and demanded severely of the terrible
infant: "Who is this Tom?"

"What! don't you know Tom?" Reginald began to lose a grain of his
respect for her. "Why, he helps in the stables; oh, cousin, he is such
a nice fellow!"

"Reginald, I shall never marry you if you keep company with grooms,
and speak their language."

"Well!" sighed the victim, "I'll give up Tom sooner than you."