Part 15 (2/2)
”Mrs O'Rane? Sonia Dainton that was? H' taken up by _that_ set now, Ricky?”
”I don't quite knohat youtaken up' I hs to-day,” he added without filling in the intervening encounters ”Lady Crawleigh wants o down there next week-end, but I'm too busy; and week-ends simply wear me out”
”You _have_ made yourself popular with them all at once!” Sybil coirl,” Eric answered, casually
”Is she anything like what people make her out to be?”
Eric sh of what peopleuv'nor working?” he asked his h the hall to his father's big work-roo bent over a litter of papers, with a green eye-shade cla corn-cob drooping frorey moustache In an ar with the bog-un across his knees By his side an elderly retriever peered reflectively into the fla, everybody,” said Eric ”I've been sent to hunt you off to dress, father You asleep, Geoff? If not, how are you?”
Sir Francis pulled off the eye-shade and held out his hand with a wintry smile The boy in the arain with a disgusted grunt
”He's got about a year to make up,” explained Sir Francis ”The Grand Fleet doesn't dovery 's always very much as usual here,” said his father, as he turned out the reading-lahed as he said it, and Eric tried to calculate the number of years in which he had come down like this for the week-end--to be overness cart, to be greeted by his mother with affection which he never seemed able to repay, to drift into the library and detach his lank, unaging father froe and the presence of a wife as he would have accepted a new house and strange house-keeper; children had been born; after the publication of his Slo-Saxon Dictionary the friend of a friend had recohthood, and he had bestirred himself ide-eyed, childish surprise for the investiture and a congratulatory dinner at the Athenaeurievously unsettled and discontented for asup to London occasionally, of having these fellon for the week-end; he had co touch with the world Then the ed his senses, and he had settled to the Century Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Volume VII E-G
After the restlessness of London, Eric could not at once accommodate himself to the leisurely contentment and placidity of Lashmar
”Wake up, Geoff!” he cried
The boy yawned and stretched himself like a cat, then became suddenly active and projected his I first bath, Ricky!”
”Well, don't take all the hot water,” Eric begged After the ingenious comfort of his flat in Ryder Street, he could not at once accommodate himself to the simplicity of the Mill-House ”Pity you never turned the east room into a bathroom,” he said to his father ”You talked about it for years We _need_ another one”
It was an old controversy and part of Eric's persistent but fruitless caainst the studiedly Spartan attitude of Lashmar Mill-House
”It's rather an unnecessary expense And we seele on without it,” said Sir Francis
”I avoid unnecessary struggles as much as possible,” Eric answered shortly
”You couldn't get the work done while the war's on,” Sir Francis pointed out, rooting himself fir in les No one ever laid out his dress clothes for him at Lashmar It never _had_ been done when he was a school-boy, carefully protected fro Sporadic atteainst the doing, Lady Lane believed that all arsIn the last resort, these country-bred girls were so difficult to teach
Down the passage ca cheerfully in the bath
”Don't stay there all night, Geoff!” Eric cried, banging on the door
”It's a quarter to eight now”
It was five ht before the bathroom, sloppy and filled with steam, was surrendered to him No man could have a hot bath and dress in five minutes; he was particularly anxious to appear at his best for the nes