`` I had n't time to cook anything . I meant to dine at Mother 's . I 'm sorry , but I was so busy , '' and Meg 's tears began again . John was a mild man , but he was human , and after a long day 's work to come home tired , hungry , and hopeful , to find a chaotic house , an empty table , and a cross wife was not exactly conducive to repose of mind or manner . He restrained himself however , and the little squall would have blown over , but for one unlucky word . `` It 's a scrape , I acknowledge , but if you will lend a hand , we 'll pull through and have a good time yet . Do n't cry , dear , but just exert yourself a bit , and fix us up something to eat . We 're both as hungry as hunters , so we sha n't mind what it is . Give us the cold meat , and bread and cheese . We wo n't ask for jelly . '' He meant it to be a good-natured joke , but that one word sealed his fate . Meg thought it was too cruel to hint about her sad failure , and the last atom of patience vanished as he spoke . `` You must get yourself out of the scrape as you can . I 'm too used up to ` exert ' myself for anyone . It 's like a man to propose a bone and vulgar bread and cheese for company . I wo n't have anything of the sort in my house . Take that Scott up to Mother 's , and tell him I 'm away , sick , dead , anything . I wo n't see him , and you two can laugh at me and my jelly as much as you like . You wo n't have anything else here . '' and having delivered her defiance all on one breath , Meg cast away her pinafore and precipitately left the field to bemoan herself in her own room .
What those two creatures did in her absence , she never knew , but Mr. Scott was not taken ` up to Mother 's ' , and when XXXXX descended , after they had strolled away together , she found traces of a promiscuous lunch which filled her with horror .
John Meg Mother anyone day laugh left pinafore scrape table