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“Is she a German?”
“Whatever she is, she’s a dirty fighter. I’ve heard on excellent authority she’s started a rumour that my Magnolia Food Base grows beards. But never mind about that. I can look after myself.”
“Darling Hersey! If only you had allowed me to perform that delightful office!”
“It’s the cruel trick you’ve played on Sandra that horrifies me. You’ve always been the same, Jo. You’ve a passion for intrigue wedded to an unholy curiosity. You lay your plans and when they work out and people are hurt or angry, nobody is more sorry or surprised than you. It’s a sort of blind patch in your character.”
“Was that why you refused me, Hersey, all those years ago?”
Hersey caught her breath and for a moment was silent.
“Not that I agree with you, you know,” said Jonathan. “One of my objectives is a lavish burial of hatchets. I hope great things of this week-end.”
“Do you expect the Compline brothers to become reconciled because you have given Nicholas an opportunity to do his barn-yard strut before Chloris Wy
“I had hoped for your co-operation,” said Jonathan wistfully.
“Mine!”
“Well, darling, to a certain extent I’ve had it. You made a marvellous recovery from your own encounter with Madame Lisse, and you tell me you’ve persuaded Sandra to stay.”
“Only because I felt it was better for her to face it.”
“Don’t you think it may be better for all of us to face our secret bogey-man? Hersey, I’ve collected a group of people each one of whom is in a great or small degree hag-ridden by a fear. Even Aubrey Mandrake has his little bogey-man.”
“The poetic dramatist? What have you nosed out from his past?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“No,” said Hersey, turning pink.
“You are sitting beside him at di
“Why should I use this loathsome phrase to Mr. Mandrake?”
“Why, simply because, although you won’t admit it, darling, you have your share of the family failing — curiosity.”
“I don’t admit it. And I won’t do it.”
Jonathan chuckled. “It is an amusing notion. I shall make the same suggestion to Nicholas. I believe it would appeal to him. To return to our cast of characters: Each of them— Sandra Compline to an extreme degree — has pushed his or her fear into a cupboard. Chloris is afraid of her old attraction to Nicholas, William is afraid of Nicholas’ fascination for Chloris and for his mother, Hart is afraid of Nicholas’ fascination for Madame Lisse, Sandra is afraid of a terrible incident in her past, Madame Lisse, though I must say she does not reveal her fear, is perhaps a little afraid of both Hart and Nicholas. You, my dearest, fear the future. If Nicholas has a fear it is that he may lose prestige, and that is a terrible fear.”
“And you, Jo?”
“I am the compère. Part of my business is to unlock the cupboards and show the fears to be less terrible in the light of day.”
“And you have no bogey-man of your own?”
“Oh, yes, I have,” said Jonathan, and the light gleamed on his spectacles. “His name is Boredom.”
“And therein am I answered,” said Hersey.
Chapter IV
Threat
While he was dressing, Mandrake had wondered how Jonathan would place his party at di
Evidently Jonathan had chosen a round table with the object of keeping the conversation general and in this project he was successful. However angry Hersey may have been with her cousin, she must have decided to pull her weight in the role of hostess for which he had obviously cast her. Mandrake, Madame Lisse, and Nicholas all did their share, and presently there appeared a kind of gaiety at the table. “It’s merely going to turn into a party that is precariously successful in the teeth of extraordinary obstacles,” Mandrake told himself. “We have made a fuss about nothing.” But this opinion was checked when he saw Dr. Hart stare at Nicholas; when, on turning to William, he found him enraged in what appeared to be some whispered expostulation with Chloris; and when, turning away in discomfort, he saw Mrs. Compline, with shaking hands, hide an infinitesimal helping under her knife and fork. He emptied his glass and gave his attention to Hersey Amblington who seemed to be talking about him to Jonathan.
“Mr. Mandrake sniffs at my suggestion,” Hersey was saying. “Don’t you, Mr. Mandrake?”
“Do I?” Mandrake rejoined uneasily. “What suggestion, Lady Hersey?”
“There! He hasn’t even heard me, Jo. Why, the suggestion I made before di
Before Mandrake could find an answer Nicholas Compline suddenly struck into the conversation.
“You mustn’t be flippant with Mr. Mandrake, Hersey,” he said. “He’s looking very austere. I’m sure he’s long ago given up footling.”
Mandrake experienced the sensation of a violent descent in some abandoned lift. His inside seemed to turn over and the tips of his fingers went cold. “God!” he thought. “They know! In a moment they will speak playfully of Dulwich.” And he sat with his fork held in suspended animation, half-way to his mouth. “This atrocious woman,” he thought, “this atrocious woman! This loathsome gri