‘Cousin Delia, I don’t think I want any sheets.’
Cousin Delia looked at me, and I think she knew what I was feeling,
for she did not ask me why. She waited a minute or two, and then,
when the shopman came back, she said, quite quietly:
‘I think we will leave the sheets for to-day. Send me the bath
towels and the face towels; that will be enough. We can send
them back afterwards, if we want to,’ she said to me, and she
took me into the tea-room which was in that shop.
We sat in two basket chairs, very low, with cushions in them,
in a corner, away from the door. There were little white cloths
with green shamrocks round the edge on the tables, and a band
was playing, a string band, with women in green uniforms playing.
A waitress came round with a big tray of cakes, very gorgeous
cakes, that you took with a fork.