"I have shown this house to visitors an hundred times," she was saying, "and so all sorts of prattle is on the tip of my tongue—all of it perfectly boring to you, Dr. Waterhouse, to whom this house needs no introduction! You know we are crossing the central hall, and that the important rooms are to the left..." She meant the dining hall and the library. "And the odds and ends to the right..." (servant’s quarters, kitchen, back stairs, House of Office) "and the Withdrawing Room straight ahead. What is your pleasure? Do you need to retire that way?" she asked, glancing to the right. She was asking him if he needed to urinate or defecate. "Or is there anything you would like there?" glancing left—meaning, did he need to take any refreshment. She kept her hands clasped together in front of her bodice and pointed to the left or right with tiny movements of her eyes, obliging Daniel to gaze into them attentively. "To be proper, I should conduct you into the Withdrawing Room where we might have a great argument as to who should sit in which chair. But after the war, French manners are quite out of favor with us—especially us Whigs—and I cannot bring myself to be so formal with you, who are like another uncle to me."