Living Alone

l of strange doings in those regions, when the conductor of one compartment fell suddenly in love with the conductress of the next, and they ran to each other and met in the middle of the car. As

ns died on their lips. Policemen put up their hands against it,-it ran over them. It even learned the trick of avoiding the nimble business man by a cunning little skid just as he thought he had caught it. You will hardly believe me, but that 'bus ran seven times round Trafalgar Square, until the lions' tails twisted for giddiness, and Nelson reeled where he stood. I don't know where it went to that day, certainly not to Barnes, but late in the evening it burst into ano

thing happened on any of the 'buses they boarded, except that, as they crossed the Canal, a cloud of sea-gulls swooped and swirled into the 'bus, resting awhile on the passengers' willing shoul

e Higgins' door five minutes before sup

rvants are gone. It's an extraordinary thin

nudged the witch. "Bette

witch loudly. "I'm horribly hungry,

y book before, and the little pictures of animals with the names of joints written all over them sh

t. I should think two small Zeppelins could have danced a minuet under its dome. Sarah Brown and the witch put o

be better than this. He liked spooks, he said, at second hand, but not otherwise. Too funny how people take dear Rrchud seriously. I'm glad

ghthouse on the mantelpiece, flanked on each side by a china boot in pink, with real bootlaces, and a pig looking out of the top of each. There were pictures on the walls, mostly representing young ladies, more or le

ven without the thunder, and seemed much less innocent about his magic than the witch. He had pale h

h Brown. "I admire them awfully. I don't like rea

e details. Whenever you see a person being unusually grown-up, suspect them of magic. You can always notice witches and wizards, for instance, after eight o'clock at night, pretending that they are not prou

on their tops, and a dropsical-looking stag drinking. "I can't imagine," insisted Richard, "that there could be a more beautiful picture than that, but perhaps it appeals to me specially because father and mother and I so often talk about the place together-the place like that, near to the mountain where I was born. That was in the Rockies, you know, and just below our mountain I am sure there was a canyon like that-I dream o

er that again marked Richard's passage through the door. Sarah Brown felt sure that Lady Arabel arranged this on purpose. The wizard's mother obviously had great difficul

henever he played it he looked closely and paternally at it, almost indeed applying his nose to it. All at once, just as Sarah Brown was beginning to imagine that she could catch the tune and the time, the music ceased, apparently in the middle of a bar. Richard sneezed once or twice. That unsophisticated wizard was evidently enjoying himself in the practice of his art. One felt that magic was not encouraged in the Army, and that the supernatural orgy in which he was now indulging was the accumulated reaction after long self-control. Strange noises of unnatural laughter, for in

myself am so dreadfully cramped and hampered. I often have to boil my incant

once did a little stunt with the sergeant's cigarette: it grew suddenly longer as he struck a match to light it, and went on growing till he had to ask me to ligh

a little nervously on very insipid subjects. Her eyes had the pathetic look often seen in stupid people's eye

ibute the whitebait, the round table began to spin, and the whitebait were whisked away from her. The table continued to spin for a moment, with a deep thrilling organ sound, and when it stopped,

I gave my job the sack this morning. I shall be on the brink of starvation in three and a half days' time. That's counting a box of Oxo Cubes I have by me. Yo

know,-I'm afraid I shan't be justified in keeping on the orchestra, certainly not in adding to it. Besides, of course, al

lever?" as

poetry was between an article on Tariff Reform and a statement of the Coal Situation, and it began 'Oh my beloved....' I thought

ween sea-level and sky-level. You can be a Hand, if you like, at sixpence an hour. You can get there from Mitten Island every day quite easily, and I'll tell you how. It's just the other side of the Parish of Faery, on your right as you reach the mainland from Mitten Island. You follow the Green Ride through the Enchanted Forest, until you come to the Castle where the

led Mesopotamian Officer's Model, with laces and real white buckskin c

very one looked at the double bass, but a

," said t

he dear thing; he had a craze for windows; this house has more glass space than wall, I think, and Pinehurst, in his spare time, used always to be making plans for squeezing in more windows. Our room is like a conservatory-so dretfully embarrassing. So I always take my knitting across the road

It was a plain uneventful piece, composed by a Higg

tself, "is why only ugly songs are really persistent. Haven't you noticed, for instance, that a peacock, or a cat on the wall, or a baby wi

d, and Harold the Broomstick, after a moment's rather embarra

we shall have some fun to-night. Sarah Brown, I

sed the road to the church, Rich

k on occult subjects as Meta Ford said they would. Of course Rrchud, as you noticed, was dretfully restless and lighthearted; all boys a

ched the door of the crypt. The very stout dog of the Vicar (are

y's canary which has fits. I was here once when the Vicar's younges

t it should find them at home. There were not more than a dozen people in the crypt therefore. Most of them were old ladies from the district's less respectable qu

ich everybody reads with avidity while determining the more never to buy the article advertised. But presently the fidgeting hands of Richard caught her eye, and she looked at him. He was sitting next to his mother on a stone step. He seemed to be

her age in winters, not in summers, so obviously untender were her years. An iron plait of hair lay for about six inches down her spine; her feet and ankles made the campstool on w

ed to cleave a bottomless abyss between one second and the next, so that one s

e I know, but really this is going a little to

over. "The villains," she said kittenishly. "Aiming at places of worship as usual. I a

not unnatural error. One could easily see tha

after the bomb, and clearly above the firing could be heard

ed in sheets. Everybody saw at one pitiful glance that these were unfortunate householders, so suddenly roused from oblivion as to forget all their ordinary suburban dignity, probably barely escaping from ruined homes wi

d began confessing her sins. "Ow, I shall go to 'ell," she shouted dramatically. "I bin sich a wicked ol' woman. I nearl

Lady Arabel. "I hope I am meeting it in a proper spirit, but of course one is

o was rather deeply engrossed in turnin

make when the sheep are

"Things are not so bad as that, surely. Y

whatever for pessimism on my part. I have no misgivings as to the verdict. But not be

woman I may be," she said with more dignity. "But I'll never regret givin' that bloody spe

feel thankful that hastiness of recrimination was never one of mine. All my life I have made it an unal

generation would follow your example. Nowadays it is much more likely to be: Is

as it may, perhaps you can help me in one little matter which is intriguing me slightly even at this solemn moment. Do you suppose the sheep will be allowed to

in that dretful way. Don't let your mind dwell on

erly lady, coldly drawing herself up. "Everybody can be my wi

to-night. And probably unshaded. Don't you know that those fiends

eeted lady. "Do you mean to say they

hard flapper. "Who the dickens do you

ming more and more alive with exclamation marks. "Is then the sole

jacent gun. The earth shook, and each report was follow

ample. But still, one cannot be too careful, and some people are heavy sleepers. I heard the first

ouch that sort of thing late at night.

urned towards the ceiling. His fingers were very tense and busy on his lap, as though he were still fidgeting with magic. But he

pert who was weaving himself nervously in and out of his master's legs. "Never

minister of this church, and the dog is mine. I was indeed about to turn it out

n, and lay down as

icar of this parish," said

h. Then you must be Canon Burstley-Ripp. How very extraordinary

but he presently contented himself with seizing a little corner of it, by which he led his aged brother vi

n' stole 'arf a pound o' sugar off of the Eelite 'Atshop where I does a bit o' cleanin'. Ef I get out o

difficult to make out, the ages of many of the children being unnaturally approximate. There seemed to be at least seven children under three years old, and yet they all bore a strong and regrettable family likeness. Several of the babies would hardly have been given credit for having reached walking age, yet none had been carried in

ss space. Somehow the air at once felt cooler and more wholesome, the sound of the All-clear had s

ighbour, rising with alacrity, and twitching her she

r one, including both the spinster and the mysterious fami

to submit blindly to my guidance in a matter strangely difficult to explain, even as I-mysel

that she was Chapel. "Excuse me, Canon," she said acidly, "b

tly ask you all to return with me to the places whence-labouring under an extraordinary error-we came to-nigh

Arabel, and became satirical, even arch. "Good afternoon, Mrs.-er-, I am assured that the moment is not solemn, and therefore solemn it shall not be. To turn to lighter subjects, I hope I shall have the pleasure of meeting you

brow, and addressed the now calm Rupert in a low voice, but with such unaccountable w

n, and Richard crossed

oo too dretful, that bomb fell quite close to