Dawn | Page 7

that George had
succeeded in planting upon him having landed on it, to the great
detriment of both the watch and the striker's knuckles; but the sun told
him that it was about half-past twelve, not too early to call. So he
opened the gate, and, advancing up an avenue of old beeches to a
square, red-brick house of the time of Queen Anne, boldly rang the
bell.
Was Miss Lee at home? Yes, Miss Lee was in the greenhouse; perhaps
Mr. Philip would step into the garden, which Mr. Philip did
accordingly.
"How do you do, Philip? I'm delighted to see you; you've just come in
time to help in the slaughter."
"Slaughter, slaughter of what--a pig?"
"No, green fly. I'm going to kill thousands."
"You cruel girl."

"I daresay it is cruel, but I don't care. Grumps always said that I had no
heart, and, so far as green fly are concerned, Grumps was certainly
right. Now, just look at this lily. It is an auratum. I gave three-and-six
(out of my own money) for that bulb last autumn, and now the bloom is
not worth twopence, all through green fly. If I were a man I declare I
should swear. Please swear for me, Philip. Go outside and do it, so that
I mayn't have it on my conscience. But now for vengeance. Oh, I say, I
forgot, you know, I suppose. I ought to be looking very sorry----"
"Why, what's the matter? Any one dead?"
"Oh, no, so much better than that. It's got Grumps."
"Got her, what has got her? What is 'it'?"
"Why, Chancery, of course. I always call Chancery 'it.' I wouldn't take
its name in vain for worlds. I am too much afraid. I might be made to
'show a cause why,' and then be locked up for contempt, which
frequently happens after you have tried to 'show a cause.' That is what
has happened to Grumps. She is now showing a cause; shortly she will
be locked up. When she comes out, if she ever does come out, I think
that she will avoid wards in Chancery in future; she will have too much
sympathy with them, and too much practical experience of their
position."
"But what on earth do you mean, Maria? What has happened to Miss
Gregson?" (anglice Grumps).
"Well, you remember one of my guardians, or rather his wife, got 'it' to
appoint her my chaperon, but my other guardian wanted to appoint
somebody else, and after taking eighteen months to do it, he has moved
the court to show that Grumps is not a 'fit and proper person.' The idea
of calling Grumps improper. She nearly fainted at it, and swore that,
whether she lived through it or whether she didn't, she would never
come within a mile of me or any other ward if she could help it, not
even the ward of an hospital. I told her to be careful, or she would be
'committing contempt,' which frightened her so that she hardly spoke
again till she left yesterday. Poor Grumps! I expect she is on bread and

water now; but if she makes herself half as disagreeable to the
Vice-Chancellor as she did to me, I don't believe that they will keep her
long. She'll wear the gaolers out; she will wear the walls out; she will
wear 'it' down to the bone; and then they will let her loose upon the
world again. Why, there is the bell for lunch, and not a single green fly
the less! Never mind, I will do for them to-morrow. How it would add
to her sufferings in her lonely cell if she could see us going to a
tete-a-tete lunch. Come on, Philip, come quick, or the cutlets will get
cold, and I hate cold cutlets." And off she tripped, followed by the
laughing Philip, who, by the way, was now looking quite handsome
again.
Maria Lee was not very pretty at her then age--just eighteen--but she
was a perfect specimen of a young English country girl; fresh as a rose,
and sound as a bell, and endowed besides with a quick wit and a ready
sympathy. She was essentially one of that class of Englishwomen who
make the English upper middle class what it is--one of the finest and
soundest in the world. Philip, following her into the house, thought that
she was charming; nor, being a Caresfoot, and therefore having a
considerable eye to the main chance, did the fact of her being the
heiress to fifteen hundred a year in land detract from her charms.
The cutlets were excellent, and Maria ate three, and was very comical
about the departed Grumps; indeed, anybody not acquainted with the
circumstances would have gathered that that excellent lady