Queen Lucia

by E. F. Benson

  Chapter FIFTEEN

  Georgie's Christmas party had just taken its seats at his roundrosewood table without a cloth, and he hoped that Foljambe would bequick with the champagne, because there had been rather a long waitbefore dinner, owing to Lucia and Peppino being late, and conversationhad been a little jerky. Lucia, as usual, had sailed into the room,without a word of apology, for she was accustomed to come last when shewent out to dinner, and on her arrival dinner was always announcedimmediately. The few seconds that intervened were employed by her insaying just one kind word to everybody. Tonight, however, thesegratifying utterances had not been received with the gratifiedresponses to which she was accustomed: there was a different atmosphereabroad, and it was as if she were no more than one-eighth of the entireparty.... But it would never do to hurry Foljambe, who was a littleupset already by the fact of there being eight to dinner, which was twomore than she approved of.

  Lucia was on Georgie's right, Mrs Colonel as she had decided to callherself, on his left. Next her was Peppino, then Mrs Quantock, thenthe Colonel, then Mrs Rumbold (who resembled a grey hungry mouse), andMr Quantock completed the circle round to Lucia again. Everyone had asmall bunch of violets in the napkin, but Lucia had the largest. Shehad also a footstool.

  "Capital good soup," remarked Mr Quantock. "Can't get soup like this athome."

  There was dead silence. Why was there never a silence when Olga wasthere, wondered Georgie. It wasn't because she talked, she somehowcaused other people to talk.

  "Tommy Luton hasn't got measles," said Mrs Weston. "I always said hehadn't, though there are measles about. He came to work as usual thismorning, and is going to sing in the carols tonight."

  She suddenly stopped.

  Georgie gave an imploring glance at Foljambe, and looked at thechampagne glasses. She took no notice. Lucia turned to Georgie, with anelbow on the table between her and Mr Quantock.

  "And what news, Georgie?" she said. "Peppino and I have been so busythat we haven't seen a soul all day. What have you been doing? Anyplanchette?"

  She looked brightly at Mrs Quantock.

  "Yes, dear Daisy, I needn't ask you what you've been doing.Table-turning, I expect. I know how interested you are in psychicalmatters. I should be, too, if only I could be certain that I was notdealing with fraudulent people."

  Georgie felt inclined to give a hollow groan and sink under the tablewhen this awful polemical rhetoric began. To his unbounded surprise MrsQuantock answered most cordially.

  "You are quite right, dear Lucia," she said. "Would it not be terribleto find that a medium, some dear friend perhaps, whom one implicitlytrusted, was exposed as fraudulent? One sees such exposures in thepaper sometimes. I should be miserable if I thought I had ever sat witha medium who was not honest. They fine the wretches well, though, ifthey are caught, and they deserve it."

  Georgie observed, and couldn't the least understand, a sudden blankexpression cross Robert's face. For the moment he looked as if he weredead but had been beautifully stuffed. But Georgie gave but a cursorythought to that, for the amazing supposition dawned on him that Luciahad not been polemical at all, but was burying instead of chopping withthe hatchet. It was instantly confirmed, for Lucia took her elbow offthe table, and turned to Robert.

  "You and dear Daisy have been very lucky in your spiritualisticexperiences," she said. "I hear on all sides what a charming medium youhad. Georgie quite lost his heart to her."

  "'Pon my word; she was delightful," said Robert.

  "Of course she was a dear friend of Daisy's, but one has to be verycareful when one hears of the dreadful exposures, as my wife said, thatoccur sometimes. Fancy finding that a medium whom you believed to beperfectly honest had yards and yards of muslin and a false nose or twoconcealed about her. It would sicken me of the whole business."

  A loud pop announced that Foljambe had allowed them all some champagneat last, but Georgie hardly heard it, for glancing up at DaisyQuantock, he observed that the same dead and stuffed look had come overher face which he had just now noticed on her husband's countenance.Then they both looked up at each other with a glance that to himbristled with significance. An agonised questioning, an imploringpetition for silence seemed to inspire it; it was as if each had madeunwittingly some hopeless _faux pas_. Then they instantly lookedaway from each other again; their necks seemed to crack with therapidity with which they turned them right and left, and they burstinto torrents of speech to the grey hungry mouse and the Colonelrespectively.

  Georgie was utterly mystified: his Riseholme instinct told him thatthere was something below all this, but his Riseholme instinct couldnot supply the faintest clue as to what it was. Both of the Quantocks,it seemed clear, knew something perilous about the Princess, but surelyif Daisy had read in the paper that the Princess had been exposed andfined, she would not have touched on so dangerous a subject. Then thecurious incident about "Todd's News" inevitably occurred to him, butthat would not fit the case, since it was Robert and not Daisy who hadbought that inexplicable number of the yellow print. And then Roberthad hinted at the discovery of yards and yards of muslin and a falsenose. Why had he done that unless he had discovered them, or unless ...Georgie's eyes grew round with the excitement of the chase ... unlessRobert had some other reason to suspect the integrity of the dearfriend, and had said this at hap-hazard. In that case what was Robert'sreason for suspicion? Had _he_, not Daisy, read in the paper ofsome damaging disclosures, and had Daisy (also having reason to suspectthe Princess) alluded to the damaging exposures in the paper by purehap-hazard? Anyhow they had both looked dead and stuffed when the otheralluded to mediumistic frauds, and both had said how lucky their ownexperiences had been. "Oh!"--Georgie almost said it aloud--What ifRobert had seen a damaging exposure in "Todd's News," and thereforebought up every copy that was to be had? Then, indeed, he would lookdead and stuffed, when Daisy alluded to damaging exposures in thepaper. Had a stray copy escaped him, and did Daisy know? What didRobert know? Had they exquisite secrets from each other?

  Lucia was being talked to across him by Mrs Weston, who had also pinneddown the attention of Peppino on the other side of her. At that precisemoment the flood of Mrs Quantock's spate of conversation to the Coloneldried up, and Robert could find nothing more to say to the hungrymouse. Georgie in this backwater of his own thoughts was whirled intothe current again. But before he sank he caught Mrs Quantock's eye andput a question that arose from his exciting backwater.

  "Have you heard from the Princess lately?" he asked.

  Robert's head went round with the same alacrity as he had turned itaway.

  "Oh, yes," said she. "Two days ago was it, Robert?"

  "I heard yesterday," said Robert firmly.

  Mrs Quantock looked at her husband with an eager encouragingearnestness.

  "So you did!" she said. "I'm getting jealous. Interesting, dear?"

  "Yes, dear, haw, haw," said Robert, and again their eyes met.

  This time Georgie had no doubts at all. They were playing the same gamenow: they smiled and smirked at each other. They had not been playingthe same game before. Now they recognised that there was a conspiracybetween them.... But he was host, his business for the moment was tomake his guests comfortable, and not pry into their inmost bosoms. Sobefore Mrs Weston realised that she had the whole table attending toher, he said:

  "I shall get it out of Robert after dinner. And I'll tell you, MrsQuantock."

  "Before Atkinson came to the Colonel," said Mrs Weston, going onprecisely where she had left off, "and that was five years beforeElizabeth came to me--let me see--was it five or was it four and ahalf?--four and a half we'll say, he had another servant whose name wasAhab Crowe."

  "No!" said Georgie.

  "Yes!" said Mrs Weston, hastily finishing her champagne, for she sawFoljambe coming near--"Yes, Ahab Crowe. He married, too, just likeAtkinson is going to, and that's an odd coincidence in itself. I tellthe Colonel that if Ahab Crowe hadn't married, he would be with himstill, and who can say
that he'd have fancied Elizabeth? And if hehadn't, I don't believe that the Colonel and I would ever have--well,I'll leave that alone, and spare my blushes. But that's not what I wassaying. Whom do you think Ahab Crowe married? You can have ten guesseseach, and you would never come right, for it can't be a common name. Itwas Miss Jackdaw. Crowe: Jackdaw. I never heard anything like that, andif you ask the Colonel about it, he'll confirm every word I've said.Boucher, Weston, why that's quite commonplace in comparison, and I'msure that's an event enough for me."

  Lucia gave her silvery laugh.

  "Dear Mrs Weston," she said, "you must really tell me at once when thehappy day will be. Peppino and I are thinking of going to theRiviera----"

  Georgie broke in.

  "You shan't do anything of the kind," he said. "What's to happen to us?'Oo very selfish, Lucia."

  The conversation broke up again into duets and trios, and Lucia couldhave a private conversation with her host. But half-an-hour ago, soGeorgie reflected, they had all been walking round each other like dogsgoing on tiptoe with their tails very tightly curled, and growlinggently to themselves, aware that a hasty snap, or the breach of thesmallest observance of etiquette, might lead to a general quarrel. Butnow they all had the reward of their icy politenesses: there was nomore ice, except on their plates, and the politeness was not a matterof etiquette. At present, they might be considered a republic, but noone knew what was going to happen after dinner. Not a word had beensaid about the tableaux.

  Lucia dropped her voice as she spoke to him, and put in a good deal ofItalian for fear she might be overheard.

  "_Non cognosce_ anybody?" she asked. "I _tablieri_, I mean.And are we all to sit in the _aula_, while the _salone_ isbeing got ready?"

  "_Si_," said Georgie. "There's a fire. When you go out, keep themthere. I _domestichi_ are making _salone_ ready."

  "_Molto bene_. Then Peppino and you and I just steal away. _Lalampa_ is acting beautifully. We tried it over several times."

  "Everybody's tummin'," said Georgie, varying the cipher.

  "Me so _nervosa!_" said Lucia. "Fancy me doing Brunnhilde beforesinging Brunnhilde. Me can't bear it."

  Georgie knew that Lucia had been thrilled and delighted to know thatOlga so much wanted to come in after dinner and see the tableaux, so hefound it quite easy to induce Lucia to nerve herself up to an ordeal sopassionately desired. Indeed he himself was hardly less excited at thethought of being King Cophetua.

  At that moment, even as the crackers were being handed round, the soundof the carol-singers was heard from outside, and Lucia had to wince, as"Good King Wenceslas" looked out. When the Page and the King sang theirspeeches, the other voices grew piano, so that the effect was of a solovoice accompanied. When the Page sang, Lucia shuddered.

  "That's the small red-haired boy who nearly deafens me in church," shewhispered to Georgie. "Don't you hope his voice will crack soon?"

  She said this very discreetly, so as not to hurt Mrs Rumbold'sfeelings, for she trained the choir. Everyone knew that the king was MrRumbold, and said "Charming" to each other, after he had sung.

  "I liked that boy's voice, too," said Mrs Weston. "Tommy Luton used tohave a lovely voice, but this one's struck me as better-trained eventhan Tommy Luton's. Great credit to you, Mrs Rumbold."

  The grey hungry mouse suddenly gave a shrill cackle of a laugh, quiteinexplicable. Then Georgie guessed.

  He got up.

  "Now nobody must move," he said, "because we haven't drunk 'absentfriends' yet. I'm just going out to see that they have a bit of supperin the kitchen before they go on."

  His trembling legs would scarcely carry him to the door, and he ranout. There were half a dozen little choir boys, four men and one tallcloaked woman....

  "Divine!" he said to Olga. "Aunt Jane thought your voice very welltrained. Come in soon, won't you?"

  "Yes: all flourishing?"

  "Swimming," said Georgie. "Lucia hoped your voice would crack soon. Butit's all being lovely."

  He explained about food in the kitchen and hurried back to his guests.There was the riddle of the Quantocks to solve: there were the tableauxvivants imminent: there was the little red-haired boy coming in soon.What a Christmas night!

  Soon after Georgie's hall began to fill up with guests, and yet not aword was said about tableaux. It grew so full that nobody could havesaid for certain whether Lucia and Peppino were there or not. Olgacertainly was: there was no mistaking that fact. And then Foljambeopened the drawing-room door and sounded a gong.

  The lamp behaved perfectly and an hour later one Brunnhilde was beingextremely kind to the other, as they sat together. "If you really wantto know my view, dear Miss Bracely," said Lucia, "it's just that. Youmust be Brunnhilde for the time being. Singing, of course, as you say,helps it out: you can express so much by singing. You are so luckythere. I am bound to say I had qualms when Peppino--or was itGeorgie--suggested we should do Brunnhilde-Siegfried. I said it wouldbe so terribly difficult. Slow: it has to be slow, and to keep gesturesslow when you cannot make them mere illustrations of what you aresinging--well, I am sure, it is very kind of you to be so flatteringabout it--but it is difficult to do that."

  "And you thought them all out for yourself?" said Olga. "Marvellous!"

  "Ah, if I had ever seen you do it," said Lucia, "I am sure I shouldhave picked up some hints! And King Cophetua! Won't you give me alittle word for our dear King Cophetua? I was so glad after the strainof Brunnhilde to have my back to the audience. Even then there is thedifficulty of keeping quite still, but I am sure you know that quite aswell as I do, from having played Brunnhilde yourself. Georgie was verymuch impressed by your performance of it. And Mary Queen of Scots now!The shrinking of the flesh, and the resignation of the spirit! That iswhat I tried to express. You must come and help me next time I attemptthis sort of thing again. That will not be quite soon, I am afraid, forPeppino and I am thinking of going to the Riviera for a littleholiday."

  "Oh, but how selfish!" said Olga. "You mustn't do that."

  Lucia gave the silvery laugh.

  "You are all very tiresome about my going to the Riviera," she said."But I don't promise that I shall give it up yet. We shall see!Gracious! How late it is. We must have sat very late over dinner. Whywere you not asked to dinner, I wonder! I shall scold Georgie for notasking you. Ah, there is dear Mrs Weston going away. I must saygood-night to her. She would think it very strange if I did not.Colonel Boucher, too! Oh, they are coming this way to save us thetrouble of moving."

  A general move was certainly taking place, not in the direction of thedoor, but to where Olga and Lucia were sitting.

  "It's snowing," said Piggy excitedly to Olga. "Will you mark myfootsteps well, my page?"

  "Piggy, you--you Goosie," said Olga hurriedly. "Goosie, weren't thetableaux lovely?"

  "And the carols," said Goosie. "I adored the carols. I guessed. Did youguess, Mrs Lucas?"

  Olga resorted to the mean trick of treading on Goosie's foot andapologising. That was cowardly because it was sure to come outsometime. And Goosie again trod on dangerous ground by saying that ifthe Page had trod like that, there was no need for any footsteps to bemarked for him.

  It was snowing fast, and Mrs Weston's wheels left a deep track, but inspite of that, Daisy and Robert had not gone fifty yards from the doorwhen they came to a full stop.

  "Now, what is it?" said Daisy. "Out with it. Why did you talk about thediscovery of muslin?"

  "I only said that we were fortunate in a medium whom after all youpicked up at a vegetarian restaurant," said he. "I suppose I mayindulge in general conversation. If it comes to that, why did you talkabout exposure in the papers?"

  "General conversation," said Mrs Quantock all in one word. "So that'sall, is it?"

  "Yes," said Robert, "you may know something, and--"

  "Now don't put it all on me," said Daisy. "If you want to know what Ithink, it is that you've got some secret."

  "And if you want to know what I think," he retorted, "it
is that I knowyou have."

  Daisy hesitated a moment, the snow was white on her shoulder and sheshook her cloak.

  "I hate concealment," she said. "I found yards and yards of muslin anda pair of Amadeo's eyebrows in that woman's bedroom the very day shewent away."

  "And she was fined last Thursday for holding a seance at which adetective was present," said Robert. "15 Gerard Street. He seizedAmadeo or Cardinal Newman by the throat, and it was that woman."

  She looked hastily round.

  "When you thought that the chimney was on fire, I was burning muslin,"she said.

  "When you thought the chimney was on fire, I was burning every copy of'Todd's News,'" said he. "Also a copy of the 'Daily Mirror,' whichcontained the case. It belonged to the Colonel. I stole it."

  She put her hand through his arm.

  "Let's get home," she said. "We must talk it over. No one knows oneword except you and me?"

  "Not one, my dear," said Robert cordially. "But there are suspicions.Georgie suspects, for instance. He saw me buy all the copies of 'Todd'sNews,' at least he was hanging about. Tonight he was clearly on thetrack of something, though he gave us a very tolerable dinner."

  They went into Robert's study: it was cold, but neither felt it, forthey glowed with excitement and enterprise.

  "That was a wonderful stroke of yours, Robert," said she. "It wasmasterly: it saved the situation. The 'Daily Mirror,' too: how rightyou were to steal it. A horrid paper I always thought. Yes, Georgiesuspects something, but luckily he doesn't know what he suspects."

  "That's why we both said we had just heard from that woman," saidRobert.

  "Of course. You haven't got a copy of 'Todd's News,' have you?"

  "No: at least I burned every page of the police reports," said he. "Itwas safer."

  "Quite so. I cannot show you Amadeo's eyebrows for the same reason. Northe muslin. Lovely muslin, my dear: yards of it. Now what we must do isthis: we must continue to be interested in psychical things; we mustn'tdrop them, or seem to be put off them. I wish now I had taken you intomy confidence at the beginning and told you about Amadeo's eyebrows."

  "My dear, you acted for the best," said he. "So did I when I didn'ttell you about 'Todd's News.' Secrecy even from each other was moreprudent, until it became impossible. And I think we should be wise tolet it be understood that we hear from the Princess now and then.Perhaps in a few months she might even visit us again. It--it would behumorous to be behind the scenes, so to speak, and observe thecredulity of the others."

  Daisy broke into a broad grin.

  "I will certainly ask dear Lucia to a seance, if we do," she said."Dear me! How late it is: there was such a long wait between thetableaux. But we must keep our eyes on Georgie, and be careful how weanswer his impertinent questions. He is sure to ask some. About gettingthat woman down again, Robert. It might be fool-hardy, for we've had anescape, and shouldn't put our heads into the same noose again. On theother hand, it would disarm suspicion for ever, if, after a few months,I asked her to spend a few days of holiday here. You said it was a fineonly, not imprisonment?"

  The week was a busy one: Georgie in particular never had a moment tohimself. The Hurst, so lately a desert, suddenly began to rejoice withjoy and singing and broke out into all manner of edifying gaieties.Lucia, capricious queen, quite forgot all the vitriolic things she hadsaid to him, and gave him to understand that he was just as high infavour as ever before, and he was as busy with his duties as ever hehad been. Whether he would have fallen into his old place so readily ifhe had been a free agent, was a question that did not arise, for thoughit was Lucia who employed him, it was Olga who drove him there. But hehad his consolation, for Lucia's noble forgiveness of all thedisloyalties against her, included Olga's as well, and out of all thedinners and music parties, and recitations from Peppino's new book ofprose poems which was already in proof, and was read to selectaudiences from end to end, there was none to which Olga was not bidden,and none at which she failed to appear. Lucia even overlooked the factthat she had sung in the carols on Christmas night, though she hadherself declared that it was the voice of the red-haired boy which wasso peculiarly painful to her. Georgie's picture of her (she never knewthat Olga had really commissioned it) hung at the side of the piano inthe music room, where the print of Beethoven had hung before, and itgave her the acutest gratification. It represented her sitting, witheyes cast down at her piano, and was indeed much on the same scheme asthe yet unfinished one of Olga, which had been postponed in its favour,but there was no time for Georgie to think out another position, andhis hand was in with regard to the perspective of pianos. So there ithung with its title, "The Moonlight Sonata," painted in gilt letters onits frame, and Lucia, though she continued to say that he had made herfar, far too young, could not but consider that he had caught herexpression exactly....

  So Riseholme flocked back to The Hurst like sheep that have beenastray, for it was certain to find Olga there, even as it had turnedthere, deeply breathing, to the classes of the Guru. It had to sitthrough the prose-poems of Peppino, it had to listen to the old, oldtunes and sigh at the end, but Olga mingled her sighs with theirs, andoften after a suitable pause Lucia would say winningly to Olga:

  "One little song, Miss Bracely. Just a stanza? Or am I trespassing toomuch on your good-nature? Where is your accompanist? I declare I amjealous of him: I shall pop into his place some day! Georgino, MissBracely is going to sing us something. Is not that a treat? Sh-sh,please, ladies and gentlemen."

  And she rustled to her place, and sat with the farthest-away expressionever seen on mortal face, while she trespassed on Miss Bracely'sgood-nature.

  Then Georgie had the other picture to finish, which he hoped to getready in time to be a New Year's present, since Olga had insisted onLucia's being done first. He had certainly secured an admirablelikeness of her, and there was in it just all that his stippled, fussyrepresentation of Lucia lacked. "Bleak December" and "Yellow Daffodils"and the rest of the series lacked it, too: for once he had donesomething in the doing of which he had forgotten himself. It was by nomeans a work of genius, for Georgie was not possessed of one grain ofthat, and the talent it displayed was by no means of a high order, butit had something of the naturalness of a flower that grew from theearth which nourished it.

  On the last day of the year he was putting a few final touches to it,little high reflected lights on the black keys, little blacknesses ofshadow in the moulding of the panel behind his hand. He had finishedwith her altogether, and now she sat in the window-seat, looking out,and playing with the blind-tassel. He had been so much absorbed in hiswork that he had scarcely noticed that she had been rather unusuallysilent.

  "I've got a piece of news for you," she said at length.

  Georgie held his breath, as he drew a very thin line of body-colouralong the edge of Ab.

  "No! What is it?" he said. "Is it about the Princess?"

  Olga seemed to hail this as a diversion.

  "Ah, let's talk about that for a minute," she said. "What you ought tohave done was to order another copy of 'Todd's News' at once."

  "I know I ought, but I couldn't get one when I thought of itafterwards. That was tarsome. But I feel sure there was something abouther in it."

  "And you can't get anything out of the Quantocks?"

  "No, though I've laid plenty of traps for them. There's anunderstanding between them now. They both know something. When I lay atrap, it isn't any use: they look at the trap, and then they look ateach other afterwards."

  "What sort of traps?"

  "Oh, anything. I say suddenly, 'What a bore it is that there are somany frauds among mediums, especially paid ones.' You see, I don'tbelieve for a moment that these seances were held for nothing, thoughwe didn't pay for going to them. And then Robert says that he wouldnever trust a paid medium, and she looks at him approvingly, and says'Dear Princess'! The other day--it was a very good trap--I said, 'Is ittrue that the Princess is coming to stay with Lady Ambermere?' Itwasn't a lie:
I only asked."

  "And then?" said Olga.

  "Robert gave an awful twitch, not a jump exactly, but a twitch. But shewas on the spot and said, 'Ah, that would be nice. I wonder if it'strue. The Princess didn't mention it in her last letter.' And then helooked at her approvingly. There is something there, no one shallconvince me otherwise."

  Olga suddenly burst out laughing.

  "What's the matter?" asked Georgie.

  "Oh, it's all so delicious!" she said. "I never knew before howterribly interesting little things were. It's all wildly exciting, andthere are fifty things going on just as exciting. Is it all of you whotake such a tremendous interest in them that makes them so absorbing,or is it that they are absorbing in themselves, and ordinary dullpeople, not Riseholmites, don't see how exciting they are? TommyLuton's measles: the Quantocks' secret: Elizabeth's lover! And to thinkthat I believed I was coming to a backwater."

  Georgie held up his picture and half closed his eyes. "I believe it'sfinished," he said. "I shall have it framed, and put it in mydrawing-room."

  This was a trap, and Olga fell into it.

  "Yes, it will look nice there," she said. "Really, Georgie, it is veryclever of you."

  He began washing his brushes.

  "And what was your news?" he said.

  She got up from her seat.

  "I forgot all about it, with talking of the Quantocks' secret," shesaid. "That just shows you: I completely forgot, Georgie. I've justaccepted an offer to sing in America, a four months' engagement, atfifty thousand million pounds a night. A penny less, and I wouldn'thave gone. But I really can't refuse. It's all been very sudden, butthey want to produce Lucretia there before it appears in England. ThenI come back, and sing in London all the summer. Oh, me!"

  There was dead silence, while Georgie dried his brushes.

  "When do you go?" he asked.

  "In about a fortnight."

  "Oh," said he.

  She moved down the room to the piano and shut it without speaking,while he folded the paper round his finished picture.

  "Why don't you come, too?" she said at length. "It would do you no endof good, for you would get out of this darling two-penny place whichwill all go inside a nut-shell. There are big things in the world,Georgie: seas, continents, people, movements, emotions. I told myGeorgie I was going to ask you, and he thoroughly approves. We bothlike you, you know. It would be lovely if you would come. Come for acouple of months, anyhow: of course you'll be our guest, please."

  The world, at that moment, had grown absolutely black to him, and itwas by that that he knew who, for him, was the light of it. He shookhis head.

  "Why can't you come?" she said.

  He looked at her straight in the face.

  "Because I adore you," he said.

  Chapter SIXTEEN

  The glad word went round Riseholme one March morning that the earliestflower in Perdita's garden was in bloom. The day was one of thoseglories of the English spring-time, with large white clouds blownacross wide spaces of blue sky by the southwest wind, and with swiftshadows that bowled across the green below them. Parliament was in fullconclave that day, and in the elms the rooks were busy.

  An awful flatness had succeeded Olga's departure. Riseholme naturallytook a good deal of credit for the tremendous success which hadattended the production of Lucretia, since it so rightly consideredthat the real cradle of the opera was here, where she had tried it overfor the first time. Lucia seemed to remember it better than anybody,for she remembered all sorts of things which no one else had thefaintest recollection of: how she had discussed music with SignorCortese, and he had asked her where she had her musical training. Sucha treat to talk Italian with a Roman--lingua Toscana in boccaRomana--and what a wonderful evening it was. Poor Mrs Colonelrecollected very little of this, but Lucia had long been aware thather memory was going sadly. After producing Lucretia in New York,Olga had appeared in some of her old roles, notably in the part ofBrunnhilde, and Lucia was very reminiscent of that charming party ofChristmas Day at dear Georgino's, when they had the tableaux. Dear Olgawas so simple and unspoiled: she had come to Lucia afterwards, and askedher to tell her how she had worked out her scheme of gestures in theawakening, and Lucia had been very glad, very glad indeed to give hera few hints. In fact, Lucia was quite herself: it was only her subjectswhom it had been a little hard to stir up. Georgie in particular hadbeen very listless and dull, and Lucia, for all her ingenuity, was at acomplete loss to find a reason for it.

  But today the warm inflowing tide of spring seemed to renovate themuddy flats, setting the weeds, that had lain dank and dispirited,a-floating again on the return of the water. No one could quite resistthe magic of the season, and Georgie, who had intended out of merepoliteness to go to see the earliest of Perdita's stupid flowers(having been warned of its epiphany by telephone from The Hurst) found,when he set foot outside his house on that warm windy morning, that itwould be interesting to stroll across the green first, and see if therewas any news. All the news he had really cared about for the last twomonths was news from America, of which he had a small packet done up ina pink riband.

  After getting rid of Piggy, he went to the newspaper shop, to get his"Times," which most unaccountably had not arrived, and the sight of"Todd's News" in its yellow cover stirred his drowsy interest. Not oneatom of light had ever been thrown on that extraordinary occurrencewhen Robert bought the whole issue, and though Olga never failed toenquire, he had not been able to give her the slightest additionalinformation. Occasionally he set a languid trap for one of theQuantocks, but they never by any chance fell into it. The whole affairmust be classed with problems like the origin of evil, among theinsoluble mysteries of life.

  It was possible to get letters by the second post an hour earlier thanthe house-to-house delivery by calling at the office, and as Georgiewas waiting for his "Times," Mrs Quantock came hurrying out of thepost-office with a small packet in her hands, which she was opening asshe walked. She was so much absorbed by this that she did not seeGeorgie at all, though she passed quite close to him, and soon aftershed a registered envelope. At that the "old familiar glamour" began tosteal over him again, and he found himself wondering with intensitywhat it contained.

  She was now some hundred yards in front of him, walking in thedirection of The Hurst, and there could be no doubt that she, too, wason her way to see Perdita's first flower. He followed her going morebriskly than she and began to catch her up. Soon (this time byaccident, not in the manner in which, through eagerness she haduntidily cast the registered envelope away) she dropped a small paper,and Georgie picked it up, meaning to give it her. It had printed matteron the front of it, and was clearly a small pamphlet. He could notpossibly help seeing what that printed matter was, for it was incapital letters:

  INCREASE YOUR HEIGHT

  Georgie quickened his step, and the old familiar glamour brightenedround him. As soon as he got within speaking distance, he called toher, and turning round, "like a guilty thing surprised," a little boxflew out of her hand. As it fell the lid came off, and there wasscattered on the green grass a multitude of red lozenges. She gave acry of dismay.

  "Oh! Mr Georgie, how you startled me" she said. "Do help me to pickthem up. Do you think the damp will have hurt them? Any news? I was sowrapped up in what I was doing that I've spoken to nobody."

  Georgie assisted in the recovery of the red lozenges.

  "You dropped this as you walked," he said. "I picked it up in order togive it you."

  "Ah, that is kind, and did you see what it was?"

  "I couldn't help seeing the outside," said Georgie.

  She looked at him a moment, wondering what was the most prudent course.If she said nothing more, he would probably tell everybody....

  "Well, then I shall let you into the whole secret," she said. "It's themost wonderful invention, and increases your height, whatever your ageis, from two to six inches. Fancy! There are some exercises you have todo, rather like those Yoga ones, every morn
ing, and you eat threelozenges a day. Quite harmless they are, and then you soon begin toshoot up. It sounds incredible, doesn't it? but there are so manytestimonials that I can't doubt it is genuine. Here's one of a man whogrew six inches. I saw it advertised in some paper, and sent for it.Only a guinea! What fun when Robert begins to see that I am taller thanhe is! But now not a word! Don't tell dear Lucia whatever you do. Sheis half a head taller than I, and it would be no fun if everybody grewfrom two to six inches. You may write for them, and I'll give you theaddress, but you must tell nobody."

  "Too wonderful" said Georgie. "I _shall_ watch you. Here we are.Look, there's Perdita's flower. What a beauty!"

  It was not necessary to press the mermaid's tail, for Lucia had seenthem from the music-room, and they heard her high heels clacking overthe polished floor of the hall.

  "Listen! No more need of high heels!" said Mrs Quantock. "And I've gotsomething else to tell you. Lucia may hear that. Ah, dear Lucia, what awonderful Perdita-blossom!"

  "Is it not?" said Lucia, blowing kisses to Georgie, and giving them toDaisy. "That shows spring is here. _Primavera!_ And Peppino's_piccolo libro_ comes out today. I should not be a bit surprisedif you each of you found a copy of it arrived before evening. Glorious!It's glorious!"

  Surely it was no wonder that Georgie's blood began to canter along hisarteries again. There had been very pleasant exciting years before now,requiring for their fuel no more than was ready at this moment to keepup the fire. Mrs Quantock was on tip-toe, so to speak, to increase herheight, Peppino was just delivered of a second of these vellum volumeswith seals and tapes outside, Mrs Weston was going to become MrsColonel at the end of the week, and at the same hour and churchElizabeth was going to become Mrs Atkinson. Had these things no savour,because----

  "How is 'oo?" said Georgie, with a sudden flush of the spring-timethrough him. "Me vewy well, sank 'oo and me so want to read Peppino'sbookie-bookie."

  "'Oo come in," said Lucia. "Evewybody come in. Now, who's got ickle bitnews?"

  Mrs Quantock had been walking on her toes all across the hall, inanticipation of the happy time when she would be from two to six inchestaller. As the animated pamphlet said, the world assumed a totallydifferent aspect when you were even two inches taller. She was quitesorry to sit down.

  "Is next week very full with you, dear Lucia?" she asked.

  Lucia pressed her finger to her forehead.

  "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday," she began. "No, not Tuesday, I am doingnothing on Tuesday. You want to be the death of me between you. Why?"

  "I hope that my dear friend, Princess Popoffski, will be staying withme" said Mrs Quantock. "Do get over your prejudice againstspiritualism, and give it a chance. Come to a seance on Tuesday. You,too, of course, Georgie: I know better than to invite Lucia withoutyou."

  Lucia put on the far-away look which she reserved for the masterpiecesof music, and for Georgie's hopeless devotion.

  "Lovely! That will be lovely!" she said. "Most interesting! I shallcome with a perfectly open mind."

  Georgie scarcely lamented the annihilation of a mystery. He must surelyhave imagined the mystery, for it all collapsed like a card-house, ifthe Princess was coming back. The seances had been most remarkable,too; and he would have to get out his planchette again.

  "And what's going to happen on Wednesday?" he asked Lucia. "All I knowis that I've not been asked. Me's offended."

  "Ickle surprise," said Lucia. "You're not engaged that evening, areyou? Nor you, dear Daisy? That's lovely. Eight o'clock? No, I think aquarter to. That will give us more time. I shan't tell you what it is."

  Mrs Quantock, grasping her lozenges, wondered how much taller she wouldbe by then. As Lucia played to them, she drew a lozenge out of the boxand put it into her mouth, in order to begin growing at once. It tastedrather bitter, but not unpleasantly so.