hat the Holy of Holies in which
Adrian had worked and died was being profaned by vulgar tread? Our
suggestions were callous, monstrous, everything that could arise from
earth-bound non-percipience of sacred things. We could only prevail upon
her to postpone her return to the flat until such time as she was
physically strong enough to grapple with changed conditions.

The pink sunbonnet was very near the dark head; both were bending over a
book on Doria's knee--_Les Malheurs de Sophie_, which Susan, proud of
her French scholarship, had proposed to read to Doria, who having just
returned from France was supposed to be the latest authority on the
language. I noticed that the severity of this intellectual communion was
mitigated by Susan's favourite black kitten, who, sitting on its little
haunches, seemed to be turning over pages rather rapidly. Then all of a
sudden, from nowhere in particular, there stepped into the landscape
(framed, you must remember, by the jambs of my door) a huge and familiar
figure, carrying a great suit-case. He put this on the ground, rushed up
to Doria, shook her by both hands, swung Susan in the air and kissed
her, and was still laughing and making the welkin ring--that is to say,
making a thundering noise--when I, having sped across the lawn, joined
the group.

"Hello!" said I, "how did you get here?"

"Walked from the station," said Jaffery. "Came down by an earlier train.
No good staying in town on such a morning. Besides--" He glanced at
Doria in significant aposiopesis.

"And you lugged that infernal thing a mile and a half?" I asked,
pointing to the suit-case, which must have weighed half a ton. "Why
didn't you leave it to be called for?"

"This? This little _sachet_?" He lifted it up by one finger and grinned.

Susan regarded the feat, awe-stricken. "Oh, Uncle Jaff, you are strong!"

Doria smiled at him admiringly and declared she couldn't lift the thing
an inch from the ground with both her hands.

"Do you know," she laughed, "when he used to carry me about, I felt as
if I had been picked up by an iron crane."

Jaffery beamed with delight. He was just a little vain of his physical
strength. A colleague of his once told me that he had seen Jaffery in a
nasty row in Caracas during a revolution, bend from his saddle and
wrench up two murderous villains by the armpits, one in each hand, and
dash their heads together over his horse's neck. But that is the sort of
story that Jaffery