{"product_id":"2940013775732","title":"The Greater Trumps","description":"\"...perfect Babel,\" Mr. Coningsby said peevishly, threw himself into a\u003cbr\u003echair, and took up the evening paper. \"But Babel never was perfect, was\u003cbr\u003eit?\" Nancy said to her brother in a low voice, yet not so low that her\u003cbr\u003efather could not hear if he chose. He did not choose, because at the\u003cbr\u003emoment he could not think of a sufficiently short sentence; a minute\u003cbr\u003eafterwards it occurred to him that he might have said, \"Then it's\u003cbr\u003eperfect now.\" But it didn't matter; Nancy would only have been rude\u003cbr\u003eagain, and her brother too. Children were. He looked at his sister, who\u003cbr\u003ewas reading on the other side of the fire. She looked comfortable and\u003cbr\u003einterested, so he naturally decided to disturb her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And what have you been doing to-day, Sybil?\" he asked, with an\u003cbr\u003einsincere good will, and as she looked up he thought angrily, \"Her\u003cbr\u003eskin's getting clearer every day.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Why, nothing very much,\" Sybil Coningsby said. \"I did some shopping,\u003cbr\u003eand I made a cake, and went for a walk and changed the library books.\u003cbr\u003eAnd since tea I've been reading.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nice day,\" Mr. Coningsby answered, between a question and a sneer,\u003cbr\u003ewishing it hadn't been, though he was aware that if it hadn't been...\u003cbr\u003ebut then it was certain to have been. Sybil always seemed to have nice\u003cbr\u003edays. He looked at his paper again. \"I see the Government are putting a\u003cbr\u003efresh duty on dried fruits,\" he snorted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSybil tried to say something, and failed. She was getting stupid, she\u003cbr\u003ethought, or (more probably) lazy. There ought to be something to say\u003cbr\u003eabout the Government putting a duty on dried fruits. Nancy spoke\u003cbr\u003einstead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You're slow, auntie,\" she said. \"The correct answer is: 'I suppose that\u003cbr\u003emeans that the price will go up!' The reply to that is, 'Everything goes\u003cbr\u003eup under this accursed Government!'\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Will you please let me do my own talking, Nancy?\" her father snapped at\u003cbr\u003eher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Then I wish you'd talk something livelier than the Dead March in Saul,\"\u003cbr\u003eNancy said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You're out of date again, Nancy,\" jeered her brother. \"Nobody plays\u003cbr\u003ethat old thing nowadays.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Go to hell!\" said Nancy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Coningsby immediately stood up. \"Nancy, you shall not use such\u003cbr\u003elanguage in this house,\" he called out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"O, very well,\" Nancy said, walked to the window, opened it, put her\u003cbr\u003ehead out, and said to the world, but (it annoyed her to feel) in a more\u003cbr\u003esubdued voice, \"Go to hell.\" She pulled in her head and shut the window.\u003cbr\u003e\"There, father,\" she said, \"that wasn't in the house.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSybil Coningsby said equably, \"Nancy, you're in a bad temper.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And suppose I am?\" Nancy answered. \"Who began it?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't answer your aunt back,\" said Mr. Coningsby, still loudly. \"She at\u003cbr\u003eleast is a lady.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She's more,\" said Nancy. \"She's a saint. And I'm a worm and the child\u003cbr\u003eof...\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe abandoned the sentence too late. Her father picked up his paper,\u003cbr\u003ewalked to the door, turned his head, uttered, \"If I am wanted, Sybil, I\u003cbr\u003eshall be in my study,\" and went out. Ralph grinned at Nancy; their aunt\u003cbr\u003elooked at them both with a wise irony.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What energy!\" she murmured, and Nancy looked back at her, half in\u003cbr\u003eanger, half in admiration.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Doesn't father ever annoy you, auntie?\" she asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No, my dear,\" Miss Coningsby said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't we ever annoy you?\" Nancy asked again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No, my dear,\" Miss Coningsby said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Doesn't anyone ever annoy you, aunt?\" Ralph took up the chant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hardly at all,\" Miss Coningsby said. \"What extraordinary ideas you\u003cbr\u003echildren have! Why should anyone annoy me?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, we annoy father all right,\" Nancy remarked, \"and I never mean to\u003cbr\u003ewhen I begin. But Ralph and I weren't making all that noise--and anyhow\u003cbr\u003eBabel wasn't perfect.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSybil Coningsby picked up her book again. \"My dear Nancy, you never do\u003cbr\u003ebegin; you just happen along,\" she said, and dropped her eyes so\u003cbr\u003eresolutely to her page that Nancy hesitated to ask her what she meant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe room was settling back into the quiet which had filled it before Mr.\u003cbr\u003eConingsby's arrival, when the bell of the front door rang. Nancy sprang\u003cbr\u003eto her feet and ran into the hall. \"Right, Agnes,\" she sang: \"I'll see\u003cbr\u003eto it.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47165944791280,"sku":"2940013775732","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013775732_p0.jpg?v=1763590106","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013775732","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}