‘Why?’
‘It seems he was in deep water and one of his chief interests had crashed quite suddenly. It turned out that Charlie had to meet a frightful lot of bills because he was Sir David’s partner. So many, that we hadn’t any money left to pay our own bills which had been mounting up a bit, anyhow. And there’s no more coming in for six months. So there you are. Well, we must simply keep our heads and take the right line with Gabriel. Charlie wrote him a really charming telegram, just right, do you know? We took great trouble with it. Gabriel is at Deepacres and he hates coming up to London so we rather hoped he’d simply realize he couldn’t let Charlie go bust and would send him a cheque. However, he telegraphed back: “Arriving Friday, six o’clock. Wutherwood,” which has thrown us all into rather a fever.’
‘Do you think it’ll be all right?’ asked Roberta.
‘Well, it’s simply so crucial that we’re not thinking at all. Never jump your fences till you meet them. But I’m terribly anxious that we should take the right line with Gabriel. It’s a bore that Charlie loathes him so whole-heartedly.’
‘I didn’t think he ever loathed anybody,’ said Roberta.
‘Well, as far as he can, he hates Gabriel. Gabriel has always been rather beastly to him and thinks he’s extravagant. Gabriel himself is a miser.’
‘Oh dear!’
‘I know. Still he’s a snob and I really don’t believe he’ll allow his brother to go bankrupt. He’d crawl with horror at the publicity. What we’ve got to do is decide on the line to take with Gabriel when he gets here. I thought the first thing was to consider his comfort. He likes a special kind of sherry, almost unprocurable, I understand, but Baskett is going to hunt for it. And he likes early Chinese pottery. Deepacres is full of leering goddesses and dragons. Well, by a great stroke of luck, one of the things poor Charlie bought with an eye to business is a small blue pot which was most frightfully expensive and which, in a mad moment, he paid for. I had the really brilliant idea of letting Mike give it to Gabriel. Mike has quite charming manners when he tries.’
‘But, Charlot, if this pot is so valuable, couldn’t you sell it?’
‘I suppose we could, but how? And, anyway, my cunning tells me that it’s much better to invest it as a sweetener for Gabriel. We’ve got to be diplomatic. Suppose the pot is worth a hundred pounds? My dear, we want two thousand. Why not use the pot as a sprat to catch a mackerel?’
‘Yes,’ said Roberta dubiously, ‘but may he not think it looks a bit lavish to be giving away valuable pots?’
‘Oh, no,’ said Lady Charles with an air of dismissal, ‘he’ll be delighted. And anyway if he flings it back in poor little Mike’s face, we’ve still got the pot.’
‘True,’ said Roberta, but she felt that there was a flaw somewhere in Lady Charles’s logic.
‘We’ll all be in the drawing-room when he comes,’ continued Lady Charles, ‘and I thought perhaps we might have some charades.’
‘What!’
‘I know it sounds mad, Robin, but you see he knows we’re rather mad and it’s no good pretending we’re not. And we’re all good at charades, you can’t deny it.’
Roberta remembered the charades in New Zealand, particularly one that presented the Garden of Eden. Lord Charles, with his glass in his eye, and an umbrella over his head to suggest the heat of the day, had enacted Adam. Henry was the serpent and the twins, angels. Frid had entered into the spirit of the part of Eve and had worn almost nothing but a brassière and a brown paper fig-leaf. Lady Charles had found one of the false beards that the Lampreys could always be depended upon to produce and had made a particularly irritable Deity. Patch had been the apple tree.
‘Does he like charades?’ asked Roberta.
‘I don’t suppose he ever sees any, which is all to the good. We’ll make him feel gay. That’s poor Gabriel’s trouble. He’s never gay enough.’
There was a tap at the door and Henry looked in.
‘I thought you might like a good laugh,’ said Henry. ‘The bum has come up the back stairs and caught poor old Daddy. He’s sitting in the kitchen with Baskett and the maids.’
‘Oh, no!’ said his mother.
‘His name is Mr Grumble,’ said Henry.
III
During lunch Lady Charles developed her theory of the way in which Lord Wutherwood – and Rune – was to be received and entertained. The family, with the exception of Henry, entered warmly into the discussion. Henry seemed to be more than usually vague and rather dispirited. Roberta, to her discomfiture, repeatedly caught his eye. Henry stared at her with an expression which she was unable to interpret until it occurred to her that he looked not at but through her. Roberta became less self-conscious and listened more attentively to the rest of the family. With every turn of their preposterous conversation her four years of separation from them seemed to diminish and Roberta felt herself slip, as of old, into an attitude of mind that half-accepted the mad logic of their scheming. They discussed the suitability of a charade, Lady Charles and her children with passionate enthusiasm. Lord Charles with an air of critical detachment. Roberta wondered what Lord Charles really felt about the crisis and whether she merely imagined that he wore a faintly troubled air. His face was at no time an expressive one. It was a pale oval face. Short-sighted eyes that looked dimly friendly, a colourless moustache and an oddly youthful mouth added nothing to its distinction, and yet it had distinction of a gentle kind. His voice was pitched rather high and he had a trick of letting his sentences die away while he opened his eyes widely and stroked the top of his head. Roberts realized that though she liked him very much she had not the smallest inkling as to what sort of thoughts went on in his mind. He was an exceedingly remote individual.
‘Well, anyway,’ Frid was saying, ‘we can but try. Let’s fill him up with sherry and do a charade. How about Lady Godiva? Henry the palfrey, Daddy the horrid husband, one of the twins Peeping Tom, and the rest of you the nice-minded populace.’
‘If you think I’m going to curvet round the drawing-room with you sitting on my back in the rude nude –’ Henry began.
‘Your hair’s not long enough, Frid,’ said Patch.
‘I didn’t say I’d be Lady Godiva.’
‘Well, you can hardly expect Mummy to undress,’ said Colin, ‘and anyway you meant yourself.’
‘Don’t be an ass, darling,’ said Lady Charles, ‘of course we can’t do Lady Godiva. Uncle G. would be horrified.’
‘He might mistake it for a Witches’ Sabbath,’ said Henry, ‘and think we were making fun of Aunt V.’
‘If Frid rode on you, I expect he would,’ said Patch.
‘Why?’ asked Mike. ‘What do witches ride on, Daddy?’
Lord Charles gave his high-pitched laugh. Henry stared thoughtfully at Patch.
‘If that wasn’t rude,’ he said, ‘it would be almost funny.’
‘Well, why not do a Witches’ Sabbath?’ asked Stephen. ‘Uncle G. hates Aunt V. being a witch. I dare say it would be a great success. It would show we were on his side. We needn’t make it too obvious, you know. It could be a word charade. Ipswich for instance.’
‘How would you do Ips?’ asked Colin.
‘Patch could waggle hers,’ said Henry.
‘You are beastly, Henry,’ stormed Patch. ‘It’s foul of you to say I’m fat. Mummy!’
‘Never