Part 18 (1/2)

”Now, chicks, this is London, the friendly town,” Jan announced, as the taxi drove away from Charing Cross station.

”Flendly little London, dirty little London,” her niece rejoined, as she bounced up and down on Jan's knee. She had slept during the very good crossing and was full of conversation and ready to be pleased with all she saw.

Tony was very quiet. He had suffered far more in the swift journey across France than during the whole of the voyage, and it was difficult to decide whether he or Ayah were the more extraordinary colour.

Greenish-white and miserable he sat beside his aunt, silent and observing.

”Here's dear old Piccadilly,” Jan exclaimed, as the taxi turned out of St. James's Street. ”Doesn't it look jolly in the suns.h.i.+ne?”

Tony turned even greener than before, and gasped:

”This! Piccadilly!”

This not very wide street with shops and great houses towering above them, the endless streams of traffic in the road and on the crowded pavements!

”Did Mrs. Bond live in one of those houses?” he wondered, ”and if so, where did she keep her ducks? And where, oh, where, were the tulips and the lilies of his dream?”

He uttered no sound, but his mind kept exclaiming, ”This! Piccadilly?”

”See,” said Jan, oblivious of Tony and intent on keeping her lively niece upon her knee. ”There's the Green Park.”

Tony breathed more freely.

After all, there _were_ trees and gra.s.s; good gra.s.s, and more of it than in the Resident's garden. He took heart a little and summoned up courage to inquire: ”But where are the tulips?”

”It's too early for tulips yet,” Jan answered. ”By and by there will be quant.i.ties. How did you know about them? Did dear Mummy tell you? But they're in Hyde Park, not here.”

Tony made no answer. He was, as usual, weighing and considering and making up his mind.

Presently he spoke. ”It's different,” he said, slowly, ”but I rather like to look at it.”

Tony never said whether he thought things were pretty or ugly. All he knew was that certain people and places, pictures and words, sometimes filled him with an exquisite sense of pleasure, while others merely bored or exasperated or were positively painful.

His highest praise was ”I like to look at it.” When he didn't like to look at it, he had found it wiser to express no opinion at all, except in moments of confidential expansion, and these were rare with Tony.

Meg had found them a nice little furnished flat on the fifth floor in one of the blocks behind Kensington High Street, and Hannah must surely have been waiting behind the door, so instantaneously was it opened, when Jan and her party left the lift.

There were tears in Hannah's eyes and her nose was red as she welcomed ”Miss Fay's motherless bairns.” She was rather shocked that there was no sign of mourning about any of them except Jan, who wore--mainly as a concession to Hannah's prejudices--a thin black coat and skirt she had got just before she left Bombay.

Tony stared stonily at Hannah and decided he did not like to look at her. She was as surprising as the newly-found Piccadilly, but she gratified no sensuous perception whatsoever.

Ayah might not be exactly beautiful, but she was harmonious. Her body was well proportioned, her sari fell in gracious flowing lines, and she moved with dignity. Without knowing why, Tony felt that there was something pleasing to the eye in Ayah. Hannah, on the contrary, was the reverse of graceful; stumpy and heavy-footed, she gave an impression of abrupt terminations. Everything about her seemed too short except her caps, which were unusually tall and white and starchy. Her afternoon ap.r.o.ns, too, were stiffer and whiter and more voluminous than those of other folk. She did not regard these things as vain adornings of her person, rather were they the outward and visible sign of her office as housekeeper to Miss Ross. They were a partial expression of the dignity of that office, just as a minister's gown is the badge of his.

By the time everyone was washed and brushed Meg returned with the luggage and Hannah brought in tea.

”I thought you'd like to give the bairns their tea yourself the first day, Miss Jan. Will that Hindu body have hers in the nursery?”

”That would be best,” Jan said hastily. ”And Hannah, you mustn't be surprised if she sits on the floor. Indian servants always do.”

”_Nothing_ she can do will surprise me,” Hannah announced loftily. ”I've not forgotten the body that came back with Mrs. Tancred, with a ring through her nose and a red wafer on her forehead.”