orld of politics he had to
be reckoned with more or less as a strong man, but he was unmistakably
dominated by Crispina; indeed I never met any human being who was not
frozen into subjection when brought into prolonged contact with her. Some
people are born to command; Crispina Mrs. Umberleigh was born to
legislate, codify, administrate, censor, license, ban, execute, and sit
in judgement generally. If she was not born with that destiny she
adopted it at an early age. From the kitchen regions upwards every one
in the household came under her despotic sway and stayed there with the
submissiveness of molluscs involved in a glacial epoch. As a nephew on a
footing of only occasional visits she affected me merely as an epidemic,
disagreeable while it lasted, but without any permanent effect; but her
own sons and daughters stood in mortal awe of her; their studies,
friendships, diet, amusements, religious observances, and way of doing
their hair were all regulated and ordained according to the august lady's
will and pleasure. This will help you to understand the sensation of
stupefaction which was caused in the family when she unobtrusively and
inexplicably vanished. It was as though St. Paul's Cathedral or the
Piccadilly Hotel had disappeared in the night, leaving nothing but an
open space to mark where it had stood. As far as was known nothing was
troubling her; in fact there was much before her to make life
particularly well worth living. The youngest boy had come back from
school with an unsatisfactory report, and she was to have sat in
judgement on him the very afternoon of the day she disappeared--if it had
been he who had vanished in a hurry one could have supplied the motive.
Then she was in the middle of a newspaper correspondence with a rural
dean in which she had already proved him guilty of heresy, inconsistency,
and unworthy quibbling, and no ordinary consideration would have induced
her to discontinue the controversy. Of course the matter was put in the
hands of the police, but as far as possible it was kept out of the
papers, and the generally accepted explanation of her withdrawal from her
social circle was that she had gone into a nursing home."

"And what was the immediate effect on the home circle?" asked the
Journalist.

"All the girls bought themselves bicycles; the feminine cycling craze was
still in existence, and Crispina had rigidly vetoed any participation in
it among the members of her hou