How would you interpret this sentence? How would you interpret this sentence ‘Why not let up on the bitchery just a little’ in the third-from-last passage? I would guess the husband asked his wife not to be so indecent. What do you think? Thank you. The excerpt is taken from the short story ‘The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber’ written by Ernest Hemingway.The excerpt: “Here’s the lunch,” said Wilson (a white hunter). “You’re very merry, aren’t you?” “Why not? I didn’t come out here to be dull.” “Well, it hasn’t been dull,” Wilson said. He could see the boulders in the river and the high bank beyond with the trees and he remembered the morning. “Oh, no,” she (Francis Macomber’s wife) said. “It’s been charming. And tomorrow. You don’t know how I look forward to tomorrow.” “That’s eland he’s offering you,” Wilson said. “They’re the big cowy things that jump like hares, aren’t they?” “I suppose that describes them,” Wilson said. “It’s very good meat,” Macomber said. “Did you shoot it, Francis?” she asked. “Yes.” “They’re not dangerous, are they?” “Only if they fall on you,” Wilson told her. “I’m so glad.” “Why not let up on the bitchery just a little, Margot,” Macomber said, cutting the eland steak and putting some mashed potato, gravy and carrot on the down-turned fork that tined through the piece of meat. “I suppose I could,” she said, “since you put it so prettily.” “Tonight we’ll have champagne for the lion,” Wilson said. “It’s a bit too hot at noon.”