Mushroom Town

nakes and rabbits to the narrowing square in the centre, at the same time something of the opposite process went on. Two or three stood aloof, Welsh when i

d to their frequent councils was admitted also Raymond Briggs, the

lly remarkable mastery; and had it not been for a trifling uncertainty about his vowels, particularly his "a's," you would have set him down as quite as much London as Leeds. And so more or less with everything else about Raymond.-But his wife haled you north again. To her, acquirements were like hot plates to the fingers, to be kept constantly in motion or else dropped altogether. Her husband was probably the most humourless man who ever came to Llanyglo; but Maud Briggs would use the homeliest of dialect-words in the most artificial of accents, and would tell you, even while she was mothering you with cool dri

articular winter was not so inclement that it stopped building-operations for more than a day or two at a time; and, with a sort of miniature Railhead strung out along the Porth Neigr road for his labour, Raymond's second house rose steadily course by course, and already they were draining and digging for the first hotel. If they were mainly Porth Neigr men Raymond employed, that did not mean that Dafydd Dafis or any other Llanyglo man who was so m

l Gruffydd was already converting the two original matchboarded cottages to his own use. Something Departmental happened somewhere beyond Llanyglo's ken (probably Mr. Tudor Williams knew all about it), and the word came that t

ies up bodily like a square of peat and had set it down again on the Llanyglo sandhills, so the idea of expansion had taken hold of Howell's mind. He even went a little preposterously beyond bounds, as others did later, when they learned that their old Welsh dressers and armchairs were a rarity and marketable, and proceeded to put ridic

behind his hand; and the quick electric gleam

angers' money.... That was the soul of good in things otherwise evil that Howell whispered to John Pritchard, and later it was so observingly di

sses of thought to grasp them fervently (if indiscriminately) by the hand, and to inquire after their rheumatics and wives and other plagues, well, he

s-ice still glazing the ruts and pools but a feeling of Spring in the air, Porth Neigr, ten miles away, came bustlingly to life. An emissary of the Lord-Lieutenant of the County took up his quarters at the Royal Hotel, and there he was one day joined by the Lord-Lieutenant himself, with Sir Somebody Something, of the Office of Works. These summoned others, who in turn summoned others, and maps and plans were sent for and a line of route was chosen. Po

th "CROESAW" on one side and "WELCOME" on the other. On the new metals a Royal Salute of fog-signals was laid. Warning of the Approach passed along the line, on the red-druggeted plat

footplate of the garlanded engine with the crossed flags on its belly. Probably intensely bored, he rode out about a mile towards Abercelyn, and then returned to luncheon at the Royal Hotel. An hour later, coming out again, he passed away to Lancashire. All was over. Folk might now take down their b

the plumbers' blowpipes. It resounds with all the doubly loud noises of a half-empty place-with hammering and tacking, clanking buckets, the "Whoas!" to the horses of the delivery-vans, the jolting of heavy things moved upstairs, the rasp of scrubbing-brushes, the squeak of window-cloths. It is spick-and-span, from the feathery new larches in front to the silvery new dustbins behind.... Wherefore, seeing that we shall only be in the way, with never a chair to sit down on yet, and nothing to eat in the place sav

. It's a warm and brilliant morning. Stretch

er, and yet the whole appearance of the place is altered. After a moment you find it quite difficult to remember it as it was the last time we were up here. See that little puff of smoke over there? That's a shunting-engine at Sarn; you'll hear the sound in a moment; there!-Butterflies about us, like hovering pansies; you can

ay "No" to the free offer of a well-built, roomy house, not three minutes from the sands where the children can play all day, and furnished from the potato-masher in the kitchen to the little square looking-glasses in the servants' attics. And of course Edward Garden asks nothing in return. But if Gilbert cares to say that the Llanyglo water is abundant and pure, Edward won't object-it is excellent water. And if Gilbert likes to praise its air and low rainfall (low for Wales), well, he'll be telling no more than the truth. And if Gilbert (not bea

n't understand them in the least. The Squire's wasted too much time over antiquity. He doesn't know anything about these people who are coming on. Except in their clothes, and so on, he'd see very little difference between them and people Raymond Briggs would look at as if they weren't there. He wouldn't understand Philip Lacey, for example. (Do you see that orange-and-black striped blazer-there by the seaweed: he's pointing; that's Philip Lacey.) Philip is the big Liverpool florist, seedsman, and landscape-gardener; if he hasn't his "roots in the land" in exactly the sense the Squire understands, his plants have; and Philip distinctly does not intend that Euonyma and Wygelia, who are at present at school at Brighton, shall go int

ef recollection of Florence that she met some people she knew in Leeds there), people who put up at far better hotels than you or I do. And if these, who can afford it,

ery likely. Minetta very much wants to be an artist, and you meet her with her sketching things all over the place. It may or may not be a passing fancy; she certainly has what Raymond Briggs calls a "Rossetti head"-enormous dark eyes, sharpis

go one better still. All the men have brightly coloured flannel blazers and gaudy cammerbands, and the women carry many-flounced parasols by a ring at the ferrule end, and wear toilettes straight out of the "Queen." Some of them will change for lunch; all of them will for table d'h?te at seven. They protest that they vastly prefer dinner at seven, but what with the servants' dinners at

ble one; those who want to go fishing have to use one of those old Copley Fielding things by the jetty there.... Now we're coming to the people. Here's Raymond Briggs with Mr. Lacey, Raymond in his orange-and-black blazer and a white Homburg hat, Philip in a blue blazer with white braid and a plain straw hat; both with perfect creamy rippling white trousers and spotless white doeskin boots. They're talking off-handedly a

hilip remarks. (You ca

with a Sara

wer's Sarace

acen

rful p

eed

akes you back int

it shorte

tel accommo

in the

ntirely new and up-t

te s

ught much of the

ed taste,

bject. As I say, it makes you think of a sort of contest. Personally, I always want to applaud when s

prosperous northerners up to the metropolitan mark. Mrs. Briggs, for example, who is very short and stout, and wears a lavender bonnet and pelisse, and certainly will not walk far on the sand in those heels, is on h

rom Paris, you see. So I says to Ray, 'It's no good making a noration here, for it's plain they don't want us. I'm glad they're doing so well they can afford to turn money away.' So I turns to

yma and Wygelia have been quite long enough in the water. Mr. Morrell is in cool-looking cream alpaca; Mrs. Lacey, who is hoo

ng. "What's that I was going to ask you, now?... I have it. Is

hasn't decided yet.-"You see, with the girls at Brighton for another yea

his making a Floral

d.-But I'm sur

ht as rain wi'

the London agent, is metropolitan, Mrs. Maynard brings quite a cosmopolitan air to Llanyglo). The misses Euonyma and Wygelia, on the other hand, learned to swim at Brighton, walking to the bathing-place in a crocodile. You see the difference. Brighton is not Ostend, any more than Llanyglo is either, and Mrs. Lacey considers that you can't be too careful.... That's Mrs. Maynard, with her back to the oncoming breaker. Her bathing-dress is

it-looking young shapes in the gleaming navy-b

an carrying the bucket of water for the little boy's moat. He'll be giving Llanyglo its bathing testimonial too. Don't tread on that seaweed; it may be a castle garden, or a sea-serpent, or anything else in the child's imagination.... There are the boys trying to laun

owell Gru

ig gold letters right across the front of

e and grey sandshoes-spades and buckets and balls and fishing-lines and toy ships-bottles of scent and the "Llanyglo Sunburn Cure" (made up for him by the chemist at Porth Neigr)-a new board with "Tricycles for Hire" on it (that's the shed at t

no, I know he's home for his holidays; I saw him driving Mr. Pritchard's hay-cart yesterday; I mean when is he going to Aberystwith?... Next year? Good! He'll make his mark in the wo

to the boys with the hand-carts. But we ought to have been here a couple of hours ago. Mrs. Briggs and Mrs. Lacey and Mrs. Garden were giving their orders for the day then. They come every morning, rings on their fingers and bells on their toes, high heels and flounced parasols and all the lot, and Howell doesn't have it all his own way then, I can tell you. For this is where our ladies are really efficient. They may never dream of travelling otherwise than first-class, but they know the price of everything to a halfpenny and a farthing. There's no "If 'twill do 'twill do" about them when it comes to the

secret sarcasm in the phr

e in for their new

and just a peep at them by

ers are rather melancholy; you see, it isn't a public-house; everything goes down on the residents' bills; and that means fewer tips. Tea is served here in the afternoon, but of course the ladies never dream of tipping. Those excellent purchasers work

Ting!

she too is almost a continental. Since Mrs. Maynard is to be seen in her red ribbons, you might expect to find Val on the beach instead of drinking vermouth in the hotel lounge; but that is far from being "in character" when you know Val. The world's pleasures a little in excess have already set their mark on Val. He will tell you that

a waiter if I can get what I want when I want it. Wai-oh, you've come, have you? Well, since

a box of Egypt

moke the rubbish they sell here. Fill your case out of th

s.-Well, as I

sees of Llanyglo, at any rate in the mornings) resumes some n

ir wives have gone upstairs to tittivate themselves. The velvet chairs fill; extra waiters appear;

re talking, not on subjects, but as if the act of talking were itself subject enough. Philip Lacey discusses with Mr. Ashton the improvement in the Harwich-Hook of Holland crossing, and Mr. Morrell exchanges views on Local Government with Raymond Briggs. "Ting! ting! You haven't cassis? Then why haven't you cassis

O-OOM-M

e lunche

hy the red-shaded oil-lamps are placed at intervals down the T of tables. The older folk gather round the head of the T, and down the stalk stretch the children. These will rise before their parents, just as they go out of Church after the Second Lesson; they will break off just below John Willie Garden and the Misses Euonyma a

, in stamped electric-blue velvet-her forearms, on which bracelets shiver, are as uniform in contour from whatever point you look at them as if they had been turned in a lathe. The Misses June and Wy also wear bracelets, from which depend bundles of sixpences, a sixpence for each of their birthdays, sixteen for Wiggie, fourtee

they unbend as they go on. At present Raymond Briggs cannot get away

t," he says for the

dnesday-no, Thursday-no, I

t Wedn

looked like rai

day it clear

op or two-not

pa

uppose there's a

don't want to see the newspapers. 'No letters

ountry ho

t-those are the

ouble about how you dress nor what yo

are coming we may as well

have a man, not

h Mo

me? There are s

n Wels

her boy,

re all

to choose

nd him with a st

s of wine, Mr

rs. Maynard. She wears a big black hat swathed in black tulle, and her dress is of black lace, with close sleeves that reach to th

n hour! Really, I shall have to stop bathing, but I do love it so. I

llantry-suddenly replies that if he were like that he would have to give up Mrs. Ma

he cries. "If you will say those things, Mr. Cl

her hair.-"I think it's champion," he add

is rather wonderful, dark, and so long that she can sit on it

. "Can anybody tell me whether there

r. Mrs. Lacey considers Mrs. Maynard's tulle-swathed hat the ostentation of modesty and the coquetry of mourning (if she is in mourning), and, getting no answer to her question about the wrecks, invents a name for Mrs. Maynard: "Mrs. Mayn

maid, but she turned out

as Dr. Smythe sa

r it rustic;

first trippe

and there they were, if you p

talk French-you haven

he rooms for nex

on! I never promis

if they like, as

hould see Tudor Wi

ldest things and there

t ashamed to go about

's a new

but it's good en

ge those do

tura

Thlan-

mine-run and get Aunt May's letter

he baby, of course, but I can't help

Percy suck, whoe

s dinner in the mi

e nicest fellows, but

his fa

he miss

aordi

men are born

me to them instead of

ter I've had my forty winks. I must

h, Wi

ch,

all it his

my di

breaking into loud shouts the moment they are clear of the ro

d's book, as you see, and Howell has pacified John Pritchard

displaying the artist's heartlessness, and does not see the sorrow in Dafydd's eyes, but only what sort of a "head" he has from her special point of view, and how he will "come" upon a piece of paper. She tried to draw Dafydd only the other day, and ordered him, half absently, to turn hi

hotel one morning and walking down to their deck-chairs and bathing-tents on the beach. He stood for a while, looking at the gay parterre of sun-shades and summer clothes, of kites and spades and buckets, and rings on fingers more

er things,"

measure also, and takes it, just as he

whispered to Dafydd

teddfod, and, as long as he is allowed to play, Dafydd does not g