Of course it was a Friday . `` I ought to have been specially careful on a Friday , '' she used to say afterwards to her husband , while perhaps Nana was on the other side of her , holding her hand . `` No , no , '' Mr. Darling always said , `` I am responsible for it all . I , George Darling , did it . MEA CULPA , MEA CULPA . '' He had had a classical education . They sat thus night after night recalling that fatal Friday , till every detail of it was stamped on their brains and came through on the other side like the faces on a bad coinage . `` If only I had not accepted that invitation to dine at 27 , '' Mrs. Darling said . `` If only I had not poured my medicine into Nana 's bowl , '' said Mr. Darling . `` If only I had pretended to like the medicine , '' was what Nana 's wet eyes said . `` My liking for parties , George . '' `` My fatal gift of humour , dearest . '' `` My touchiness about trifles , dear master and mistress . '' Then one or more of them would break down altogether ; Nana at the thought , `` It 's true , it 's true , they ought not to have had a dog for a nurse . '' Many a time it was Mr. Darling who put the handkerchief to Nana 's eyes . `` That fiend ! '' Mr. Darling would cry , and Nana 's bark was the echo of it , but Mrs. Darling never upbraided Peter ; there was something in the right-hand corner of her mouth that wanted her not to call Peter names . They would sit there in the empty nursery , recalling fondly every smallest detail of that dreadful evening . It had begun so uneventfully , so precisely like a hundred other evenings , with Nana putting on the water for Michael 's bath and carrying him to it on her back . `` I wo n't go to bed , '' he had shouted , like one who still believed that he had the last word on the subject , `` I wo n't , I wo n't .
XXXXX , it is n't six o'clock yet .
CULPA Darling George Michael Nana Peter coinage evening evenings trifles