that had checked the onset of Albion Villas towards
the new town, and passed through the turnstile Fenwick and Vereker had
passed through in the morning. Then speech came back, and each did
what all folk invariably do after a long spell of silence--revealed
what they were being silent about, or seemed to be. Most likely
Fenwick's contribution was only a blind, as his mind must have been
full of many thoughts he wished to keep to himself.

"I wonder when Paganini's young woman's row with her mother's going
to come off--to-day or to-morrow?"

"I was wondering whether it would come off at all. I dare say she'll
accept the inevitable." Thus Rosalind, and for our part we believe
this also was not quite candid--in fact, was really suggested by her
husband's remark. But Sally's was a genuine disclosure, and really
showed what her mind had been running on.

"I've been meditating a Crusade," she said, with remoteness from
current topics in her voice. And both her companions immediately
made concessions to one that seemed to them genuine as compared with
their own.

"Against whom, kitten?" said her mother.

And Fenwick reinforced her with, "Yes, who's the Crusade to be
against, Sarah?"

"Against the Octopus." And Sally says this with the most perfectly
unconscious gravity, as though a Crusade against an octopus was a
very common occurrence in every-day life. The eyes of her companions
twinkle a little interchange across her unseen, but are careful to
keep anything suggesting a smile out of their voices as they apply
for enlightenment.

"Because of poor Prosy," Sally explains. "You'll see now. She won't
allow him to come round this evening, you see if she does!" She is
so intent upon her subject-matter that they might almost have smiled
aloud without detection, after all.

"When's it to come off, Sarah--the Crusade?"

"I was thinking of going round this evening if he doesn't turn up."

"Suppose we all go," Fenwick suggests. And Rosalind assents.
The Crusade may be considered organized. "We'll give him till
eight-forty-five," Sally says, forecasting strategy, "and then if
he doesn't come we'll go."

Eight-forty-five came, but no doctor. So the Crusade came off as
arranged, with the result that the Christian forces, on arriving in
the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, found that the Octopus responsible
for the personation of the Saracens had just gone to bed. It was an
ill-advised Crusade, because if the Christians had onl