intelligence. You don’t
know what a relief it is to feel that we can rely on you. Remember. Not Jeff.
Smith. Though as you are such old friends you might call him Smithy.’
‘At
school we always called him Bingo.’
‘That
will be capital. Well, I am glad it’s all straightened out, my dear Duff. You
had now better be getting along and reporting to Jimmy. No doubt he will be
delighted to see you.’
Vicky
had been listening to these exchanges with growing admiration. As Claude
receded in the direction of the croquet lawn, she said:
‘At-a-boy,
Gaily.’
‘Thank
you, my dear.’
‘I see
now what you mean by telling the tale.’
‘I was
not at my best, I fear. One gets a bit rusty as the years go by. Still, it got
over all right.’
‘Triumphantly.’
‘We
shan’t have any more trouble with Claude Duff. So now there’s nothing on our
minds.’
‘Nothing.’
‘We are
carefree. We sing tra la la.’
‘Would
you go as far as that?’
‘Omitting
perhaps the final la!’
‘Though
I shall be too nervous to do much singing.’
‘Nonsense.
Nothing to be nervous about.’
‘You
really feel that?’
‘Certainly.
I don’t say that when Jimmy told us Claude Duff had clocked in I didn’t feel a
momentary twinge of uneasiness. But you saw how soon it passed off. What can
possibly bung a spanner into our hopes and dreams now? It isn’t as if your stepmother
was your Aunt Constance. Connie could detect rannygazoo by a sort of sixth
sense and smell a rat when all other noses were baffled, but she was a woman in
a thousand. Sherlock Holmes could have taken her correspondence course.’
‘What a
comfort you are, Gally.’
‘So I
have been told, though not by any of the female members of my family. What a
lot of exercise Beach is taking this afternoon,’ said Gaily, changing the
subject as the butler came out of the house and made his way towards them. ‘Hullo,
Beach. Did you want to see me, or are you out for a country ramble?’
Neither
of these suggestions, it appeared, fitted the facts. It was duty that had
called Beach to brave the ultra-violet rays of the sun.
‘I am
taking his lordship a telegram that has just come over the telephone. It is
from Mr. Frederick, saying that he is in England again and will be paying a
visit to the castle as soon as his business interests permit.’
Beach
passed on, and Vicky, starting to express her pleasure at the prospect of
seeing her Cousin Frederick again, found herself interrupted by a sharp barking
sound from her Uncle Galahad, who, becoming coherent, added the words ‘Hell’s
bells!’
‘What’s
the matter?’ she asked.
Gally
was in no mood to break things gently.
‘Do you
realize,’ he said, his voice choked and his eyeglass once more adrift, ‘that we
are plunged more deeply in the soup than ever? Freddie is a friend of Jeff’s
and you know what a bubblehead Freddie is. The chances that lie won’t call Jeff
Jeff in front of your stepmother are virtually nil.’
‘Oh,
Gally.’
‘There
is only one thing to do—go to London and intercept him and make him see that he
must not come down here. I’ll pinch the Bentley [33] and start right away.’
CHAPTER
NINE
JEFF meanwhile, conducted
by Beach, had come to journey’s end, but he was under no illusion that his
pilgrimage was to terminate in lovers’ meeting. His emotions on finding himself
closeted with Florence somewhat resembled those of a young lion tamer who,
entering the lion’s cage, suddenly realizes that he has forgotten all he was
taught by his correspondence school. A chill seemed to have fallen on the
summer day, and he saw how right Gally had been in comparing his sister to the
late Gorgon.
Forbidding
was the adjective a stylist like Gustave Flaubert would have applied to her
aspect, putting it of course in French, as was his habit. She was an angular
woman, and her bearing was so erect that one wondered why she did not fall over
backwards. She had not
know what a relief it is to feel that we can rely on you. Remember. Not Jeff.
Smith. Though as you are such old friends you might call him Smithy.’
‘At
school we always called him Bingo.’
‘That
will be capital. Well, I am glad it’s all straightened out, my dear Duff. You
had now better be getting along and reporting to Jimmy. No doubt he will be
delighted to see you.’
Vicky
had been listening to these exchanges with growing admiration. As Claude
receded in the direction of the croquet lawn, she said:
‘At-a-boy,
Gaily.’
‘Thank
you, my dear.’
‘I see
now what you mean by telling the tale.’
‘I was
not at my best, I fear. One gets a bit rusty as the years go by. Still, it got
over all right.’
‘Triumphantly.’
‘We
shan’t have any more trouble with Claude Duff. So now there’s nothing on our
minds.’
‘Nothing.’
‘We are
carefree. We sing tra la la.’
‘Would
you go as far as that?’
‘Omitting
perhaps the final la!’
‘Though
I shall be too nervous to do much singing.’
‘Nonsense.
Nothing to be nervous about.’
‘You
really feel that?’
‘Certainly.
I don’t say that when Jimmy told us Claude Duff had clocked in I didn’t feel a
momentary twinge of uneasiness. But you saw how soon it passed off. What can
possibly bung a spanner into our hopes and dreams now? It isn’t as if your stepmother
was your Aunt Constance. Connie could detect rannygazoo by a sort of sixth
sense and smell a rat when all other noses were baffled, but she was a woman in
a thousand. Sherlock Holmes could have taken her correspondence course.’
‘What a
comfort you are, Gally.’
‘So I
have been told, though not by any of the female members of my family. What a
lot of exercise Beach is taking this afternoon,’ said Gaily, changing the
subject as the butler came out of the house and made his way towards them. ‘Hullo,
Beach. Did you want to see me, or are you out for a country ramble?’
Neither
of these suggestions, it appeared, fitted the facts. It was duty that had
called Beach to brave the ultra-violet rays of the sun.
‘I am
taking his lordship a telegram that has just come over the telephone. It is
from Mr. Frederick, saying that he is in England again and will be paying a
visit to the castle as soon as his business interests permit.’
Beach
passed on, and Vicky, starting to express her pleasure at the prospect of
seeing her Cousin Frederick again, found herself interrupted by a sharp barking
sound from her Uncle Galahad, who, becoming coherent, added the words ‘Hell’s
bells!’
‘What’s
the matter?’ she asked.
Gally
was in no mood to break things gently.
‘Do you
realize,’ he said, his voice choked and his eyeglass once more adrift, ‘that we
are plunged more deeply in the soup than ever? Freddie is a friend of Jeff’s
and you know what a bubblehead Freddie is. The chances that lie won’t call Jeff
Jeff in front of your stepmother are virtually nil.’
‘Oh,
Gally.’
‘There
is only one thing to do—go to London and intercept him and make him see that he
must not come down here. I’ll pinch the Bentley [33] and start right away.’
CHAPTER
NINE
JEFF meanwhile, conducted
by Beach, had come to journey’s end, but he was under no illusion that his
pilgrimage was to terminate in lovers’ meeting. His emotions on finding himself
closeted with Florence somewhat resembled those of a young lion tamer who,
entering the lion’s cage, suddenly realizes that he has forgotten all he was
taught by his correspondence school. A chill seemed to have fallen on the
summer day, and he saw how right Gally had been in comparing his sister to the
late Gorgon.
Forbidding
was the adjective a stylist like Gustave Flaubert would have applied to her
aspect, putting it of course in French, as was his habit. She was an angular
woman, and her bearing was so erect that one wondered why she did not fall over
backwards. She had not
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