ad
originally been kingfisher-blue. She had not quite realized how
brilliant crimson-lake was in the piece; it seemed almost to cast a
ruddy glow on the very ceiling, and the fact that she had caused the
orange chiffon with which the neck and sleeves were trimmed to be dyed
black (following the exquisite taste of Mrs. Titus Trout) only threw the
splendour of the rest into more dazzling radiance. Kingfisher-blue would
appear quite ghostly and corpse-like in its neighbourhood; and painful
though that would be for Diva, it would, as all her well-wishers must
hope, be a lesson to her not to indulge in such garishness. She should
be taught her lesson (D.V.), thought Miss Mapp, at Susan's bridge-party
to-morrow evening. Captain Puffin was being taught a lesson, too, for we
are never too old to learn, or, for that matter, to teach.

Though the night was dark and moonless, there was an inconveniently
brilliant gas-lamp close to the Major's door, and that strategist,
carrying his round roll of diaries, much the shape of a bottle, under
his coat, went about half-past nine that evening to look at the
rain-gutter which had been weeping into his yard, and let himself out of
the back-door round the corner. From there he went down past the
fishmonger's, crossed the road, and doubled back again up Puffin's side
of the street, which was not so vividly illuminated, though he took the
precaution of making himself little with bent knees, and of limping.
Puffin was already warming himself over the fire and imbibing Roman
roads, and was disposed to be hilarious over the Major's shopping.

"But why top-hat and frock-coat, Major?" he asked. "Another visit of the
Prince of Wales, I asked myself, or the Voice that breathed o'er Eden?
Have a drink--one of mine, I mean? I owe you a drink for the good laugh
you gave me."

Had it not been for this generosity and the need of getting on the right
side of Puffin, Major Flint would certainly have resented such clumsy
levity, but this double consideration caused him to take it with
unwonted good-humour. His attempt to laugh, indeed, sounded a little
hollow, but that is the habit of self-directed merriment.

"Well, I allow it must have seemed amusing," he said. "The fact was that
I thought she would appreciate my putting a little ceremony into my
errand of apology, and then she whisked me off shopping before I could
go and change."

"Kiss and friends again, then?" asked Puffin.

The Major grew a li