The Sixth Sense

IRST

re not my guest: y

ard: Pr

d you. You should h

and, then, that you are a briga

he wealth of England

what do you expec

nd: Just

aptain Brassboun

t work on an illustrated biography of the Seraph. Loose sheets still wet from his quick, prolific pen lay scattered over chairs, tables and floor, and range

"Returning from church, washed of all his sins and thinkin' w

found that other people tend to be somewhat irritating in the early morning. When I breakfast alone, I am not in the least fretful, but I believe it to be physiologically true that the facial muscles grow stiff during sleep,

up yet?"

ved on berries and cold water, slept in a draught, and mortified his flesh with a hair shirt. He had,

of us was th

ered Culling darkly. "Seraph'

tuent parts back to their magical origin, he feels he has done something really worth doing. Sylvia-like most dév?tes-could not believe in the existence of a conscientious free-thinker. Why two attractive young people should have bothered their heads ov

iding herself

ing the rest of

emes. He was dressed that morning in brown shoes, brown socks, a brown suit and brown Homburg hat; even his shirt had a faint brown line, and his handkerchief a brown border. Of a Sphinx-like family, he was the most enigmatic; his leading characteristics were a surprisingly fluent use of the epithet "bloody," and a condition of perma

Oxford for the nominal purpose of a few days' rest before his Schools, and with the underlying

as soon as we had been introduced.

ing?" aske

or, I

andered round the library in search of a cha

terruption. "I've got six tickets for each. Yo

who has the beads? Some one's got to wear a bead necklace, you aren't admitted

rs struggling in front of the Town Hall for the possession of an exiguous necklace. The Vice-

" continued Robin dispa

who had just entered the room,

ishment suggested that experience had taught him to persuade rather than coerce. "You'll come, if you love

included?"

bin answered in modest triumph.

've seen my best dancing days. In any case I shouldn't last the course three nights running.

waved to the Seraph who had just enter

s it to be?

w if I'm coming,

ious unsuccessful efforts to hustle his sister. "Think it over," he added more mildly, "but let me know

of Culling's chair and strolled to the window. A long gree

, by Jove!"

ho

I wonder wh

r to accord with the day's colour scheme, took on hims

y," he volunteered. "Praise God with a lo

peerage," I suggest

d only be a viscount. 'Gad, I wonder if old Gillingham's handed in his knife and fork! That means the Chancellorship for the

e began to retreat through the open French windows into the garden. The Seraph and I, however, stood at the end of the file and were caught by

as we made another movement towards th

ed rather painfully since the day I first met him five-and-twenty years before, a

weeks' work into three days. He had his son's ruthless vigour and wilful assurance without any of Nigel's thin-skinned s

mpse I had caught o

by the eleven-twenty. We've only two decent trains in the day, and if she missed that she was to lunch in town and come by the four-ten. You

gaged in meeting old friends and being introduced t

en tells me you came down by the four-ten yesterday afternoon. The train slips a coach at Longf

an I had been, and Rawnsley shut

rections, then," he said

d the dressmak

eft ten-forty,"

I asked. "Is she likely to h

ed. "This letter makes that quite plain. I want to

Received by first delivery to-day, posted in the late fe

r as I remember i

ar

the ballot for Private Member's Bills. Your daughter will be permitted to communicate with you by post, subject to reasonable censorship; on the day when you promise special facilities and Government support for the Marklake Bill, and ag

ber's night after the Recess. Should you fail to give the assurances we require, it will be necessa

to offer even the most perfunctory condolence. Now that the blow had been

no clue?

letter carefully and

without a single defect in type or alignment. And the

you goin

ther; no good purpose will be served by giving the militants a free advertisement. When I am in town, it is to be und

questions, but I could not help asking what line Rawnsley proposed to

ck to my wife, she's-a good deal upset. Can you spare Nigel, Roden? I should like to take him if I may. Good-bye, Mr. Merivale. Good-bye, Mr. -- Oh, by the way, Roden,

s words-all arguments had been exhausted on both sides and war à outrance was declared by women who insisted on a vote against men who refused to concede it. I had every reason to think I knew whose brain had evolved that abduction policy; its reckless simplic

as starting, and though I looked like being spared initiation into the mysteries of golf-which I am not yet infirm enough to learn-it was not very clear how we were to kil

romptu Calico Ball, to be given that night to all who would come. While he sat at the telephone summoning the County of Hampshire to do his bidding, Sylvia had departed in her little white runabout to purchase masks and a bale of calic

en after writing a bulletin to catch my brother at Gibraltar, I felt I had earned rest and a cheroot before luncheon. Brandon Court was one of those admirably appointed houses where you could be certain o

interrupt. If it's anything else, we'd be

e answered. "There's no

pars non magna sum-i

ny volume three,"

mean, a mere tem

is hand I could write like, well, l

to sto

re wouldn't be a volume t

y n

a moment from under their long lashes. Then he crum

things you can

a nom de

you see it,

after luncheon, first Lady Roden and Gartside, then the rest of the party with the single excepti

et, does anybody

arter of an hour ago,"

he ver

n't se

of the room to make f

and advanced on Michael who was reclining decoratively on a Chesterfield sofa. "Talking of Burber

r bloody Burberry," Michael r

warfare raged unintermittently round their bedroom doors. It was so invariable a rule with Michael to mee

persisted Robin, as he applied the pap

's," said Mich

her with the suggestion of a l

him," answered the humane Philip.

y being meted out. Within two minutes the immaculate Michael had been reduced to slim, white nudity, and even as the decorous Gartside proffered a consolatory "Times' Educational Supplement," the two brothers and Culling had divide

t Sylvia had come in about a quarter of an hour before: to be strictly accurate, she had entered the yard as the stable clock struck one-fifteen, and had come into the house three minutes later by a side door and gone straight to her room by a side staircase. The Seraph and I had been sitting in the library since twelve-forty-five. The library

ot no satisfactory answer. Meeting Sylvia in the hall a few

threat that his young body would be dragged up and down till the bones cut through the skin and scratched the floor, was effectual in persuading him to swathe his

urements taken, but no indication was manifested of the guise in which we were to appear. At eight we retired to our rooms with sinking hearts; a

" I sat out two with Sylvia, and was cut three times by Gladys, who disappeared with Philip at an early stage. Further, I supped twice with two creditably hungry girls, discussed the lineage of the county with Lady Roden, and smoked a sy

d received an even sweeter, Tristan-und-Isolde smile, and the same proportion of her programme. The Seraph, arm-in-sling, hung unostentatiously on the outs

e end of the third he prepare

ing this one wit

," he t

stay he

omised it to yo

disappointment,"

later?" he asked. "You oughtn't to cut Wi

omed or inclined to d

e said, uncertain whethe

l girl in the world. There he's right. He'll treasure up every word you speak, every smile you give him; he'll se

had grown so earnest that Sylvia found he

h boys like that," she said, more t

why can't any girl understand the mind of a boy of fifteen? You'd make such men of them if you'd

," said Syl

ll when he meets you

f you'll ev

ph made

for a snub," said S

now

anything you don't know?" she asked as t

you're going to let me

there's

not an

ou wa

know that wi

a great deal about

ted before Sylvia put the question wit

know? to use your own words

an answer, t

eplied, with that curious expression in

interested. It's about mysel

; I don't know. It n

ev

r his first meeting wi

ny one else,"

her head in

you were talking without thinking, or else ... I don't know. It's

ctives ar

they weren't to

re out

d'you

hear

d at the closed pl

she said in

ened a fresh bottle of scent to-night when you dressed for dinner. It's Chaminade,

less impressed by his powers

e?" she asked

inkled his br

lock and went into her room. I don't know who it was, but it wasn't you. The coughing s

o you

eard

now it was me. I went once and mother went

and walked with her to th

r?" he said. "Then she

ou know?" Syl

re than about the car co

her head a li

ormal," she

use I

o

action more about yo

yo

It would take time

ate to be thou

ted, we should be par

ow? How

shrugged hi

ead the future," h

n the success of the evening. I added my quota of praise, and was pressed

ng off at his usual tangent. "Where's Syl

ired but happy, and

nd kissing him good-night. "Yes, all right-I will. Oh, Mr. Rawnsley told me th

his voice co

e Cynthia to come. And

om with thoughtful, unsmiling eye

ome, Seraph

her practice of avoiding Christian names. For some reaso