Queen Lucia

by E. F. Benson

  Chapter NINE

  The fish for which Mrs Weston sent to Brinton every week since she didnot like the look of the successor to Tommy Luton's mother laydisregarded on the dish, while with fork and fish-slice in her hand, asaids to gesticulation, she was recounting to Colonel Boucher thecomplete steps that had led up to her remarkable discovery.

  "It was the day of Mrs Lucas's garden-party," she said, "when first Ibegan to have my ideas, and you may be sure I kept them to myself, forI'm not one to speak before I'm pretty sure, but now if the King andQueen came to me on their bended knee and said it wasn't so, Ishouldn't believe them. Well--as you may remember, we all went back toMrs Lucas's party again about half-past six, and it was an umbrellathat one had left behind, and a stick that another had forgotten, andwhat not, for me it was a book all about Venice, that I wanted toborrow, most interesting I am sure, but I haven't had time to glance atit yet, and there was Miss Bracely just come!"

  Mrs Weston had to pause a moment for her maid, Elizabeth Luton (cousinof Tommy), jogged her elbow with the dishcover in a manner that couldnot fail to remind her that Colonel Boucher was still waiting for hispiece of brill. As she carved it for him, he rapidly ran over in hismind what seemed to be the main points so far, for as yet there was nocertain clue as to the purpose of this preliminary matter, he guessedeither Guru or Miss Bracely. Then he received his piece of brill, andMrs Weston laid down her carving implements again.

  "You'd better help yourself, ma'am," said Elizabeth discreetly.

  "So I had, and I'll give you a piece of advice too, Elizabeth, and thatis to give the Colonel a glass of wine. Burgundy! I was only wonderingthis afternoon when it began to turn chilly, if there was a bottle ortwo of the old Burgundy left, which Mr Weston used to be so fond of,and there was. He bought it on the very spot where it was made, and hesaid there wasn't a headache in it, not if you drank it all night. Henever did, for a couple of glasses and one more was all he ever took,so I don't know how he knew about drinking it all night, but he was avery fine judge of wine. So I said to Elizabeth, 'A bottle of the oldBurgundy, Elizabeth,' Well, on that evening I stopped behind a bit, tohave another look at the Guru, and get my book, and when I came up thestreet again, what should I see but Miss Bracely walking in to thelittle front garden at 'Old Place.' It was getting dark, I know, and myeyes aren't like Mrs Antrobus's, which I call gimlets, but I saw herplain enough. And if it wasn't the next day, it was the day after that,that they began mending the roof, and since then, there have beenplumbers and painters and upholsterers and furniture vans at the doorday and night."

  "Haw, hum," said the Colonel, "then do you mean that it's Miss Bracelywho has taken it?"

  Mrs Weston nodded her head up and down.

  "I shall ask you what you think when I've told you all," she said."Well! There came a day, and if today's Friday it would be last Tuesdayfortnight, and if today's Thursday, for I get mixed about it thismorning, and then I never get it straight till next Sunday, but iftoday's Thursday, then it would be last Monday fortnight, when the Guruwent away very suddenly, and I'm sure I wasn't very sorry, becausethose breathings made me feel very giddy and yet I didn't like to beout of it all. Mr Georgie's sisters went away the same day, and I'veoften wondered whether there was any connection between the two events,for it was odd their happening together like that, and I'm not surewe've heard the last of it yet."

  Colonel Boucher began to wonder whether this was going to be about theGuru after all and helped himself to half a partridge. This had theeffect of diverting Mrs Weston's attention.

  "No," she said. "I insist on your taking the whole bird. They are quitesmall, and I was disappointed when I saw them plucked, and a bit ofcold ham and a savoury is all the rest of your dinner. Mary asked me ifI wouldn't have an apple tart as well, but I said 'No; the Colonelnever touches sweets, but he'll have a partridge, a whole partridge,' Isaid, 'and he won't complain of his dinner.' Well! On the day that theyall went away, whatever the explanation of that was, I was sitting inmy chair opposite the Arms, when out came the landlord followed by twomen carrying the settle that stood on the right of the fireplace in thehall. So I said, 'Well, landlord, who has ordered that handsome piece?'For handsome it was with its carved arms. And he said, 'Good morning,ma'am no, good afternoon ma'am, it would be--It's for Miss--and then hestopped dead and corrected himself, 'It's for Mr Pillson.'"

  Mrs Weston rapidly took a great quantity of mouthfuls of partridge. Assoon as possible she went on.

  "So perhaps you can tell me where it is now, if it was for Mr Georgie,"she said. "I was there only two days ago, and it wasn't in his hall, orin his dining room, or in his drawing room, for though there arechanges there, that settle isn't one of them. It's his treasure casethat's so altered. The snuff-box is gone, and the cigarette case andthe piece of Bow china, and instead there's a rat-tail spoon which heused to have on his dinner-table, and made a great fuss with, and a bitof Worcester china that used to stand on the mantelpiece, and adifferent cigarette case, and a bead-bag. I don't know where that camefrom, but if he inherited it, he didn't inherit much that time, Ipriced it at five shillings. But there's no settle in the treasure-caseor out of it, and if you want to know where that settle is, it's in OldPlace, because I saw it there myself, when the door was open, as Ipassed. He bought it--Mr Georgie--on behalf of Miss Bracely, unless yousuppose that Mr Georgie is going to live in Old Place one day and hisown house the next. No; it's Miss Bracely who is going to live at 'OldPlace' and that explains the landlord saying 'Miss' and then stopping.For some reason, and I daresay that won't puzzle me long, now I cangive my mind to it, she's making a secret about it, and only Mr Georgieand the landlord of the Arms know. Of course he had to, for 'Old Place'is his, and I wish I had bought it myself now, for he got it for an oldsong."

  "Well, by Jove, you have pieced it together finely," said ColonelBoucher.

  "Wait a bit," said Mrs Weston, rising to her climax. "This very day,when Mary, that's my cook as you know, was coming back from Brintonwith that bit of brill we've been eating, for they hadn't got an ounceof turbot, which I wanted, a luggage-train was standing at Riseholmestation, and they had just taken out of it a case that could have heldnothing but a grand piano. And if that's not enough for you, Colonel,there were two big dress-baskets as well, which I think must havecontained linen, for they were corded, and it took two men to move eachof them, so Mary said, and there's nothing so heavy as linen properlypacked, unless it's plate, and there printed on them in black--no, itwould be white, because the dress-baskets are black, were two initials,O.B. And if you can point to another O.B. in Riseholme I shall thinkI've lost my memory."

  At this moment of supreme climax, the telephone-bell rang in the hall,shrill through the noise of cracking walnuts, and in came Elizabethwith the news that Mr Georgie wanted to know if he might come in forhalf-an-hour and chat. If it had been Olga Bracely herself, she couldhardly have been more welcome; virtue (the virtue of observation andinference) was receiving its immediate reward.

  "Delighted; say I'm delighted, Elizabeth," said Mrs Weston, "and now,Colonel, why should you sit all alone here, and I all alone in thedrawing room? Bring your decanter and your glass with you, and youshall spare me half a glass for myself, and if you can't guess what oneof the questions that I shall ask Mr Georgie is: well----"

  Georgie made haste to avail himself of this hospitality for he wasbursting with the most important news that had been his since the nightof the burglaries. Today he had received permission to let it be knownthat Olga was coming to Old Place, for Mr Shuttleworth had beeninformed of the purchase and furnishing of the house, and had, asexpected, presented his wife with it, a really magnificent gift. So nowRiseholme might know, too, and Georgie, as eager as Hermes, if notquite so swift, tripped across to Mrs Weston's, on his delightfulerrand. It was, too, of the nature of just such a punitive expeditionas Georgie thoroughly enjoyed, for Lucia all this week had been ratherhaughty and cold with him for his firm refusal to tell her who thepurchaser of
Old Place was. He had admitted that he knew, but had saidthat he was under promise not to reveal that, until permitted and Luciahad been haughty in consequence. She had, in fact, been so haughty thatwhen Georgie rang her up just now, before ringing Mrs Weston up, to askif he might spend an hour after dinner there, fully intending to tellher the great news, she had replied through her parlour-maid that shewas very busy at the piano. Very well, if she preferred the second andthird movements of the Moonlight Sonata, which she had seriously takenin hand, to Georgie's company, why, he would offer himself and hisgreat news elsewhere. But he determined not to bring it out at once;that sort of thing must be kept till he said it was time to go away.Then he would bring it out, and depart in the blaze of Success.

  He had brought a pretty piece of embroidery with him to occupy himselfwith, for his work had fallen into sad arrears during August, and hesettled himself comfortably down close to the light, so that at thecost of very little eye-strain, he need not put on his spectacles.

  "Any news?" he asked, according to the invariable formula. Mrs Westoncaught the Colonel's eye. She was not proposing to bring out hertremendous interrogation just yet.

  "Poor Mrs Antrobus. Toothache!" she said. "I was in the chemist's thismorning and who should come in but Miss Piggy, and she wanted a drop oflaudanum and had to say what it was for, and even then she had to signa paper. Very unpleasant, I call it, to be obliged to let a chemistknow that your mother has a toothache. But there it was, tell him shehad to, or go away without any laudanum. I don't know whether MrDoubleday wasn't asking more than he should, just out ofinquisitiveness, for I don't see what business it is of his. I knowwhat I should have said: 'Oh, Mr Doubleday, I want it to make laudanumtartlets, we are all so fond of laudanum tartlets.' Something sharp andsarcastic like that, to show him his place. But I expect it did MrsAntrobus good, for there she was on the green in the afternoon, and herface wasn't swollen for I had a good look at her. Oh, and there wassomething I wanted to ask you, Mr Georgie, and I had it on the tip ofmy tongue a moment ago. We talked about it at dinner, the Colonel andI, while we were eating our bit of partridge, and I thought 'Mr Georgiewill be sure to be able to tell us,' and if you didn't ring up on thetelephone immediately afterwards! That seemed just Providential, butwhat's the use of that, if I can't remember what it was that I wantedto ask you."

  This seemed a good opening for his startling news, but Georgie rejectedit, as it was too early yet. "I wonder what it could have been," hesaid.

  "Well, it will come back to me presently, and here's our coffee, and Isee Elizabeth hasn't forgotten to bring a drop of something good foryou two gentlemen. And I don't say that I won't join you, if Elizabethwill bring another glass. What with a glass of Burgundy at my dinner,and a drop of brandy now, I shall be quite tipsy unless I take care.The Guru now, Mr Georgie, no, that's not what I wanted to ask youabout--but has there been any news of the Guru?"

  For a moment in this juxtaposition of the topics of brandy and Guru,Georgie was afraid that something might have leaked out about thecontents of the cupboard in Othello. But it was evidently a chancecombination, for Mrs Weston went straight on without waiting for ananswer.

  "What a day that was," she said, "when he and Miss Olga Bracely wereboth at Mrs Lucas' garden-party. Ah, now I've got it; now I know what Iwanted to ask. When will Miss Olga Bracely come to live at Old Place?Quite soon now, I suppose."

  If Georgie had not put down his embroidery with great expedition, hewould undoubtedly have pricked his finger.

  "But how on earth did you know she was coming at all?" he said. "I wasjust going to tell you that she was coming, as a great bit of news. Howtarsome! It's spoiled all my pleasure."

  "Haw, hum, not a very gallant speech, when you're talking to MrsWeston," said the Colonel, who hated Georgie's embroidery.

  Luckily the pleasure in the punitive part of the expedition remainedand Georgie recovered himself. He had some news too; he could answerMrs Weston's question.

  "But it was to have been such a secret until the whole thing wasready," he said. "I knew all along; I have known since the day of thegarden-party. No one but me, not even her husband."

  He was well rewarded for the recovery of his temper. Mrs Weston putdown her glass of something good untasted.

  "What?" she said. "Is she going to live here alone in hiding from him?Have they quarrelled so soon?"

  Georgie had to disappoint her about this, and gave the authenticversion.

  "And she's coming next week, Monday probably," he said.

  They were all now extremely happy, for Mrs Weston felt convinced thatnobody else had put two and two together with the same brilliant resultas herself, and Georgie was in the even superior position of havingknown the result without having to do any addition at all, and ColonelBoucher enjoyed the first fruits of it all. When they parted, havingthoroughly discussed it, the chief preoccupation in the minds of allwas the number of Riseholmites that each of them would be the first topass on the news to, Mrs Weston could tell Elizabeth that night, andColonel Boucher his bull-dogs, but the first blood was really drawn byGeorgie, who seeing a light in Mrs Quantock's drawing room when hereturned, dropped in for a moment and scored a right and left bytelling Robert who let him in, before going upstairs, and Mrs Quantockwhen he got there. It was impossible to do any more that night.

  Lucia was always very busy of a morning in polishing the sword andshield of Art, in order to present herself daily to her subjects inshining armour, and keep a little ahead of them all in culture, andthus did not as a rule take part in the parliament on the Green.Moreover Georgie usually dropped in before lunch, and her casualinterrogation "Any news?" as they sat down to the piano, elicited fromhim, as in a neat little jug, the cream of the morning's milkings.Today she was attired in her Teacher's Robe, for the elementary class,though not always now in full conclave, gathered at her house onTuesdays and Fridays. There had been signs of late that the interest ofher pupils was on the wane, for Colonel Boucher had not appeared fortwo meetings, nor had Mrs Weston come to the last, but it was part ofLucia's policy to let Guruism die a natural death without herselffacilitating its happy release, and she meant to be ready for her classat the appointed times as long as anybody turned up. Besides theTeacher's Robe was singularly becoming and she often wore it when therewas no question of teaching at all.

  But today, though she would not have been surprised at the completeabsence of pupils, she was still in consultation with her cook over thecommissariat of the day, when a succession of tinklings from themermaid's tail, announced that a full meeting was assembling. Her maidin fact had announced to her without pause except to go to the door andback, though it still wanted a few minutes to eleven, that ColonelBoucher, Mrs Weston, Mrs Antrobus and Piggy were all assembled in thesmoking-parlour. Even as she passed through the hall on her way 'there,Georgie came hurrying across Shakespeare's garden, his figure distortedthrough the wavy glass of the windows, and she opened the door to himherself.

  "_Georgino mio_," she said, "oo not angry with Lucia for sayingshe was busy last night? And now I'm just going to take my Yoga-class.They all came rather early and I haven't seen any of them yet. Anynews?"

  Georgie heaved a sigh; all Riseholme knew by this time, and he wasgoing to score one more by telling Lucia.

  "My dear, haven't you heard yet?" he asked. "I was going to tell youlast night."

  "The tenant of Old Place?" asked Lucia unerringly.

  "Yes. Guess!" said Georgie tantalizingly. This was his last revelationand he wanted to spin it out.

  Lucia decided on a great stroke, involving risks but magnificent if itcame off. In a flash she guessed why all the Yoga-class had come sosuper-punctually; each of them she felt convinced wanted to have thejoy of telling her, after everybody else knew, who the new tenant was.On the top of this bitterness was the added acrimony of Georgie, whoseclear duty it was to have informed her the moment he knew, wanting tomake the same revelation to her, last of all Riseholme. She had alreadyhad her suspicions, for
she had not forgotten the fact that OlgaBracely and Georgie had played croquet all afternoon when they shouldhave been at her garden-party, and she determined to risk all for thesake of spoiling Georgie's pleasure in telling her. She gave hersilvery laugh, that started, so she had ascertained, on A flat abovethe treble clef.

  "_Georgino_, did all my questions as to who it was really take youin?" she asked. "Just as if I hadn't known all along! Why, Miss OlgaBracely, of course!"

  Georgie's fallen face shewed her how completely she had spoiled hispleasure.

  "Who told you?" he asked.

  She rattled her tassels.

  "Little bird!" she said. "I must run away to my class, or they willscold me."

  Once again before they settled down to high philosophies, Lucia had thepleasure of disappointing the ambitions of her class to surprise,inform and astonish her.

  "Good morning to you all," she said, "and before we settle down I'llgive you a little bit of news now that at last I'm allowed to. DearMiss Olga Bracely, whom I think you all met here, is coming to live atOld Place. Will she not be a great addition to our musical parties?Now, please."

  But this splendid bravado was but a scintillation, on a hard and highlypolished surface, and had Georgie been able to penetrate into Lucia'sheart he would have found complete healing for his recent severemortification. He did not really believe that Lucia had known allalong, like himself, who the new tenant was, for her enquiries hadseemed to be pointed with the most piercing curiosity, but, after all,Lucia (when she did not forget her part) was a fine actress, andperhaps all the time he thought he had been punishing her, she had beenfooling him. And, in any ease, he certainly had not had the joy oftelling her; whether she had guessed or really knew, it was she who hadtold him, and there was no getting over it. He went back straight homeand drew a caricature of her.

  But if Georgie was sitting with a clouded brow, Lucia was troubled bynothing less than a raging tornado of agitated thought. Though Olgawould undoubtedly be a great addition to the musical talent ofRiseholme, would she fall into line, and, for instance, "bring hermusic" and sing after dinner when Lucia asked her? As regards music, itwas possible that she might be almost too great an addition, and causethe rest of the gifted amateurs to sink into comparativeinsignificance. At present Lucia was high-priestess at every altar ofArt, and she could not think with equanimity of seeing anybody incharge of the ritual at any. Again to so eminent an opera-singer theremust be conceded a certain dramatic knowledge, and indeed Georgie hadoften spoken to Lucia of that superb moment when Brunnhilde woke andhailed the sun. Must Lucia give up the direction of dramatic art aswell as of music?

  Point by point pricked themselves out of the general gloom, and hoisteddanger signals; then suddenly the whole was in blaze together. What ifOlga took the lead, not in this particular or in that, but attempted toconstitute herself supreme in the affairs of Riseholme? It was all verywell for her to be a brilliant bird of passage just for a couple ofdays, and drop so to speak, "a moulted feather, a eagle's feather" onLucia's party, thereby causing it to shine out from all previousfestivities, making it the Hightumest affair that had ever happened,but it was a totally different matter to contemplate her permanentresidence here. It seemed possible that then she might keep herfeathers to line her own eyrie. She thought of Belshazzar's feast, andthe writing of doom on the wall which she was Daniel enough tointerpret herself, "Thy kingdom is divided" it said, "and given to theBracelys or the Shuttleworths."

  She rallied her forces. If Olga meant to show herself that sort ofwoman, she should soon know with whom she had to deal. Not but whatLucia would give her the chance first of behaving with suitable loyaltyand obedience; she would even condescend to cooperate with her so longas it was perfectly clear that she aimed at no supremacy. But there wasonly one lawgiver in Riseholme, one court of appeal, one dispenser ofdestiny.

  Her own firmness of soul calmed and invigorated her, and changing herTeacher's Robe for a walking dress, she went out up the road that ledby Old Place, to see what could be observed of the interior fromoutside.