"
This was worse and worse. She had urged her son to provide her with a
supply of quails for Sunday's banquet, but he had begged her not to
insist on having them. There was no close time for them in Erewhon, but
he set his face against their being seen at table in spring and summer.
During the winter, when any great occasion arose, he had allowed a few
brace to be provided.
"I asked my son to let me have some," said Yram, who was now on full
scent. She laughed genially as she added, "Can you throw any light upon
the question whether I am likely to get my three dozen? I have had no
news as yet."
"The man had taken a good many; we saw them but did not count them. He
started about midnight for the ranger's shelter, where he said he should
sleep till daybreak, so as to make up his full tale betimes."
Yram had heard her son complain that there were no shelters on the
preserves, and state his intention of having some built before the
winter. Here too, then, the man's story must be false. She changed the
conversation for the moment, but quietly told a servant to send high and
low in search of her son, and if he could be found, to bid him come to
her at once. She then returned to her previous subject.
"And did not this heartless wretch, knowing how hungry you must both be,
let you have a quail or two as an act of pardonable charity?"
"My dear Mayoress, how can you ask such a question? We knew you would
want all you could get; moreover, our permit threatened us with all sorts
of horrors if we so much as ate a single quail.
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