too ruthlessly invaded. It was generally our men visitors who took the liveliest interest in our new acquisition, which brings me to the point of my tale.
Paterfamilias was away when the clock came and was put up. He generally is away when anything really important happens. When he first noticed the clock he showed an immediate and lively interest in it. That in itself was a suspicious circumstance, had I but realized it. Pater has a large capacity for ignoring household exigencies. How often have I openly, not to say obtrusively, remarked upon sundry shutter-hinges hanging limply by one screw, or called attention to discouraged castors without exciting the least response. But with the cuckoo-clock it was different from the first. He wanted to know why it had been hung in such a dark place and what it was hung on. He created suspicion about its being exactly straight, saying that of course it wouldn't keep time if it were not, and asked every now and then what made that rumbling sound, while it was striking, when I couldn't hear any. Altogether, the amount of interest he took in it seemed unwarranted for a man who doesn't know the price of coal
