Queen Lucia

act of atrocious meanness, she never indulged in any idle threats of revenge: it wa

the utmost good-humour, merely saying, “No doubt dear Mrs Quantock forgot to tell you,” and did not announce acts of reprisal, such as striking Daisy off the list of her habitual guests for a week or two, just to give her a lesson. She even, before they sat down to lunch, telephoned over to that thwar

uld be eaten without struggle. He talked quite freely about his mission here, and Lucia and Georgie and Peppino who ha

wanted Guru, and I knew I was called to her. No luggage, no anything at all: as I am. Such a kind lady, too, an

one leg in the garden?” asked Georgie, “and

and difficult for globe.

round wi

d. “It is happy place, when there are

pupils, and presently they went out into the garden, where the Guru sat on the ground

r thigh,” he explained. “And the head and

t felt that any meditation so would cert

that?” she asked. “And

dear lady, and ah — here is o

now, and her own note, saying that it was uncertain whether the Guru would come to the garden party or not filled her with the most uneasy apprehensions. She would sooner have acquiesced in her Guru going to fifty garden-parties, where all was public, and she could keep an eye and a control on him, rather than that Lucia should have “entic

in to lunch, without any bother at all, was troubled and broken up, and darling Daisy’s note, containing the outrageous falsity that the Guru would not certainly accept an invitation which had

ully, after the usual salutations had passed, “why did y

nwound his leg

ant we all are! Take not too much thought, w

k patted hi

m,” she said. “I send out

and Lucia proceeded to do so, as in a parachute that

ear Daisy,” she said. “The Guru is goin

his head, palms outwar

l classes? Yes? I teach: you learn. We all learn. . . . I leave all to you. I will walk a little way off to

me. Had not Mrs Quantock been actually present, Lucia in revenge for her outrageous conduct about the garden-party invitation would probably have left her out of the classes altogether, but with her sitting firm and square in a bask

d, “and here is the smoking-parlour which no one ever sits in, s

briskly to

classes, that you should have all the trouble and expense of entertaining him, for in your sweet little house

desperate effort to

ntrary in fact, dear. It is delightful having him,

ed her hand

people I know.’ Haven’t I, Georgie? But we can’t permit you to be so crowded. Your only spare room, you know, and

had contemplated having the Guru and Olga Bracely to dinner, without even asking Lucia: now the faint stirrings of revolt f

ture, if she is to board and lodge him, while he teaches all of us. I wish I could take

t and Othello vacant”— all her rooms were named after Shakespearian plays —“and it will not be the least

repented of having ever mentioned her Guru to Lucia: it had never occurred to her that she would annex him like th

for it. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and so I suppose the teacher is. What if we pay him five shillings each a lesson: that will make a pound a lesson. Dear me! I shall be busy this August. Now how ma

lling, resorted to the most dire we

Guru if he has anything to say to your settlings. England is a

ing been any. For it is no use plunging a dagger into your enemy’s heart, if it produces no e

I will trot away, shall I, and see if he agrees. Don’t think of stirring, dear Daisy, I know how you feel

ain this morning, and had quite made up her mind, as indeed her proceedings had just shown, that Yoga was, to put it irreverently, to be her August

“It is full of sweet influences an

felt t

at they said to yo

led: they said they would settle e

int twitchings of conscience (they were of the very faintest) that she had grabbed dear Daisy’s property were once and for ever quieted, and she proce

” he said. “It is they who ord

pths of meditation, and Lucia hurr

love, so we may be sure we were right in our plans. How lovely to think that we have been guided by them! Dear Daisy,

ous to rebel against the ordinances of the Guides, but

he world. Every material possession chains us down t

oducing a topic that might lead to discord, and indeed, even as Lucia went indoors to see about Hamlet

say it is best your Guru should come here. Perhaps I shall return later to your kind house. They smiled when I

d Mrs Quantock so effectually as a message of that kind, which she would cer

ight already, Guru, dear?” she

, and leave sweet thoughts there for you. And shall I send

n mind the conjecture that was forming itself there, namely, that though the Guru would be leaving sweet thoughts for Mrs Quantock, he would probably be taking away the brandy bottle for

lived at Riseholme, he never remembered a time when social events —“work,” he called it — had been so exciting and varied. There were Hermy and Ursy coming this evening, and Olga Bracely and her husband (Olga Bracely and Mr Shuttleworth sounded vaguely improper: Georgie rather liked that) were coming tomorrow, and there was Lucia’s garden-party the day after, and every day there was to be a lesson f

y she had done that. In that meeting in the garden just now she had just sailed through Mrs Quantock as calmly as a steamer cuts through the waters of the sea, throwing her off from her penetrating bows like a spent wave. But baffled though she was for the moment, Georgie had been aware that Mrs Quantock seethed with revolutionary ideas: sh

ly he got the benefit of his teachings. For social purposes Lucia had annexed him, and doubtless with him in the house she could get little instructions and hints that would not count as a lesson, but after all, Georgie had still got Olga Bracely to himself, for he had not br

e train, however, was an immense quantity of luggage being taken out, which could not all be Mrs Weston’s fish, and indeed, even at that distance there was something familiar to Georgie about a very large green hold-all which was dumped there. Perhaps Hermy and Ursy had travelled in the van, because “it was such a lark,” or for some other tom

est G

cle down instead, so for a lark we sent our things on, and we may arrive tonight, b

ou

ER

doesn’t really bite:

eth, probably in fun. In pursuance of this humorous idea, he then darted towards Georgie, and would have been extremely funny, if he had not been handicapped by th

t is true, liked dogs, so perhaps dogs liked her . . . “But it is most tarsome of Hermy!” thought Georgie bitterly. “I wonder what the Guru would do.” There ensued a very trying ten minutes, in which the station-master, the porters, Georgie and Mrs Weston’s maid all called Tipsipoozie a good dog as he lay on the ground snapping promiscuously at those who praised him. Eventually a valiant porter picked up the bag of clubs, and by

wheels and Georgie explained the absence of h

e,” he said, “bu

ometimes Georgie resented. Now he hailed

r,” she said. “I’ve

care, Foljambe wo

r take care,” return

d next moment emerged again with Tipsipoozie on the end of the chain, making extravagant exhibitions of delight. Then to Georgie’s horror, the drawing-room door opened, and in came Tipsipoozie without any chain at all. Rapidly

tied to those golf-cl

s saucer, could not help wondering whet

hiefly later, in the highest spirits at the larks they had had, with amazingly dirty hands and prodigious appetite. But when twelve o’clock struck, he decided to give up all idea of their appearance that night, and having given Tipsipoozie some more jam and a comfortable bed in

ought it tremendous larks, and would have invented some wonderful offensive with fire-irons and golf-clubs and dumb-bells. Even Tipsipoozie, the lately-abhorred, would have been a succour in this crisis, and why, oh why, had not Georgie had him to sleep in his bedroom instead of making him cosy in the woodshed? He would have let Tipsipoozie sleep on his lovely blue quilt for the remainder of his days, if only Tipsipoozie could have been with him now, ready to have fun with the burglar below. As it was, the servants were in the attics at the top of the house, Dicky slept out, and Georgie was al