beneath the clock, the two together seeming to
represent stability in a changing world. Mr. Perrott passed through;
Mr. Venning poised for a second on the edge of a table. Mrs. Paley was
wheeled past. Susan followed. Mr. Venning strolled after her. Portuguese
military families, their clothes suggesting late rising in untidy
bedrooms, trailed across, attended by confidential nurses carrying noisy
children. As midday drew on, and the sun beat straight upon the roof,
an eddy of great flies droned in a circle; iced drinks were served under
the palms; the long blinds were pulled down with a shriek, turning all
the light yellow. The clock now had a silent hall to tick in, and an
audience of four or five somnolent merchants. By degrees white figures
with shady hats came in at the door, admitting a wedge of the hot summer
day, and shutting it out again. After resting in the dimness for a
minute, they went upstairs. Simultaneously, the clock wheezed one, and
the gong sounded, beginning softly, working itself into a frenzy, and
ceasing. There was a pause. Then all those who had gone upstairs came
down; cripples came, planting both feet on the same step lest they
should slip; prim little girls came, holding the nurse's finger; fat old
men came still buttoning waistcoats. The gong had been sounded in the
garden, and by degrees recumbent figures rose and strolled in to eat,
since the time had come for them to feed again. There were pools and
bars of shade in the garden even at midday, where two or three visitors
could lie working or talking at their ease.

Owing to the heat of the day, luncheon was generally a silent meal, when
people observed their neighbors and took stock of any new faces there
might be, hazarding guesses as to who they were and what they did. Mrs.
Paley, although well over seventy and crippled in the legs, enjoyed her
food and the peculiarities of her fellow-beings. She was seated at a
small table with Susan.

"I shouldn't like to say what _she_ is!" she chuckled, surveying a tall
woman dressed conspicuously in white, with paint in the hollows of her
cheeks, who was always late, and always attended by a shabby female
follower, at which remark Susan blushed, and wondered why her aunt said
such things.

Lunch went on methodically, until each of the seven courses was left in
fragments and the fruit was merely a toy, to be peeled and sliced as
a child destroys a daisy, petal by petal. The food served as an
extingu