Far to Seek | Page 6

of fire and went through the
leaping scorching flames to meet her lord----"

The low clear voice fell silent--and the silence stayed. The vague thrill
of a tragedy they could hardly grasp laid a spell upon the children. It
made Roy feel as he did in Church, when the deepest notes of the organ
quivered through him; and it brought a lump in his throat, which must
be manfully swallowed down on account of being a boy....
And suddenly the spell was broken by the voice of Roger the footman,
who had approached noiselessly along the mossy track.
"If you please, m'lady, Sir Nevil sent word as Lord and Lady Roscoe
'ave arrived unexpected; and if convenient, can you come in?"
They all started visibly and their dream-world of desert and rose-red
mountains and battle-fields and leaping flames shivered like a
soap-bubble at the touch of a careless hand.
Lilámani rose, gentle and dignified. "Thank you, Roger. Tell Sir Nevil I
am coming."
Roy suppressed a groan. The mere mention of Aunt Jane made one feel
vaguely guilty. To his nimble fancy it was almost as if her very person
had invaded their sanctuary, in her neat hard coat and skirt and her neat
hard summer hat with its one fierce wing, that, disdaining the
tenderness of curves, seemed to stab the air, as her eyes so often
seemed to stab Roy's hyper-sensitive brain.
"Oh dear!" he sighed. "Will they stop for lunch?"
"I expect so."
He wrinkled his nose in a wicked grimace.
"Bad boy!" said Lilámani's lips, but her eyes said other things. He knew,
and she knew that he knew how, in her heart, she shared his innate
antagonism. Was it not of her own bestowing--a heritage of certain
memories--ineffaceable, unforgiveable--during her early days of
marriage? But in spite of that mutual knowledge, Roy was never
allowed to speak disrespectfully of his formidable aunt.

"You can stay out and play till half-past twelve, not one minute later,"
she said--and left them to their own delectable devices.
Roy had been promoted to a silver watch on his eighth birthday, so he
could be relied on; and he still enjoyed a private sense of importance
when the fact was recognised.
Left alone they had only to pick up the threads of their game; a sort of
interminable serial story, in which they lived and moved and had their
being. But first Tara--in her own person--had a piece of news to impart.
Hunching up her knees, she tilted back her head till it touched the
satin-grey hole of the tree and all her hair lay shimmering against it like
a stream of pale sunshine.
"What do you think?" she nodded at Roy with her elfin smile. "We've
got a Boy-on-a-visit and his mother, from India. They came last night.
He's rather a large boy."
"Is he nine?" Roy asked, standing up very straight and slim, a defensive
gleam in his eye.
"He's ten and a half. And he looks bigger'n that. He goes to school. And
he's been quite a lot in India."
"Not my India."
"I don't know. He called it 'Mballa. That letter I brought from Mummy
was asking if she could bring them for tea."
"Well, I don't want him for tea. I don't like your Boy-on-a-visit. I'll tell
Mummy."
"Oh, Roy--you mustn't." She made reproachful eyes at him. "Coz then I
couldn't come. And he's quite nice--only rather lumpy. And you can't
not like someb'dy you've never seen."
"I can, I often do." The possibility had only just occurred to him. He
saw it as a distinction and made the most of it. "Course if you're going

to make a fuss----"
Tara's eyes opened wider still. "Oh, Roy, you _are_----! 'Tisn't me that's
making fusses."
Though Roy knew nothing as yet about woman and the last word, he
instinctively took refuge in the masculine dignity that spurns descent to
the dusty arena when it feels defeat in the air.
"Girls don't never fuss--do they?" he queried suavely. "Let's get on with
the Game and not bother about your Boy-of-ten."
"And a half," Tara insisted tactlessly, with her sweetest smile. But
when Roy chose to be impassive pin-pricks were thrown away on him.
"Where'd we stop?" he mused, ignoring her remark. "Oh--I know. The
Knight was going forth to quest the Elephant with golden tusks for the
High Tower Princess who wanted them in her crown. Why do
Princesses always want what the knights can't find?"
Tara's feminine intuition leaped at a solution.
"I 'spec it's just to show off they are Princesses and to keep the Knights
from bothering round.--So away he went and the Princess climbed up
to her highest tower and waved her lily hand----"
In the same breath she, Tara, sprang to her feet and swung