(no subject)
In the end, it's not anything she reads in a book or in the newspaper - or even anything her tutor tells her - that causes the thing that's been nagging at the back of Mary's mind for the past few months to finally come into focus.
It's not even the fact that the King of England is at the moment very near death. That particular tidbit of news has not yet reached the back-country of Yorkshire, and besides, sad to say, Mary is not particularly invested in the health and long life of her monarch in any case. (Edward VII has just always seemed awfully frivolous.)
Rather, it's just an overheard boast from the cook's boy to the youngest under-scullery maid: "They might dare go at France, but they wouldn't dare go at us!"
Mary doesn't have to hear the beginning of the conversation to know who he's talking about. Everybody knows the King and his nephew Wilhelm of Germany don't get on; everyone jokes about the greedy Germans. Nobody really thinks anything of it.
The cook's boy has gone on to making fun of French food. Mary's not listening. She stops on the stairs, and takes some time to think about it.
It's not even the fact that the King of England is at the moment very near death. That particular tidbit of news has not yet reached the back-country of Yorkshire, and besides, sad to say, Mary is not particularly invested in the health and long life of her monarch in any case. (Edward VII has just always seemed awfully frivolous.)
Rather, it's just an overheard boast from the cook's boy to the youngest under-scullery maid: "They might dare go at France, but they wouldn't dare go at us!"
Mary doesn't have to hear the beginning of the conversation to know who he's talking about. Everybody knows the King and his nephew Wilhelm of Germany don't get on; everyone jokes about the greedy Germans. Nobody really thinks anything of it.
The cook's boy has gone on to making fun of French food. Mary's not listening. She stops on the stairs, and takes some time to think about it.