Page:Hermione and her little group of serious thinkers (1923, c1916).djvu/151

Poor Dear Mamma and Fothergil Finch "I have not," she murmured.

Fothergil desperately persevered.

"We don't see so much as we used to of— of——" (I am sure he didn't know how he was going to finish the sentence when he began it, but he plunged ahead) "of the Queen Anne style of architecture."

With visible relief, and yet with a lurking suspicion, she assented. And Fothergil, feeling himself on safe ground at last, went on:

"Don't you think she was one of the most interesting queens in English history—Queen Anne? Do you remember the anecdote——"

But she checked him, frightened again:

"I do not wish to hear it, Mr. Finch," she said.

"But," said Fothergil, "she was a most unexceptionable Queen—not like, er—not like—well, Cleopatra, you know, or any of those bad ones."

Hermione's mother was silent, but it was apparent that she feared the talk was about to veer toward Cleopatra.

"When I was a girl," she said, "the lives of queens were considered rather dangerous reading for young women. You need not go into details, please."

I couldn't stand it any more myself. "If you'll just tell Hermione I called," I said, edging toward the door. Fothergil, however, stuck it out. In the [137]