Page:The Climber (Benson).djvu/163

Rh "But cannot one of them play so loud that he does not hear what the treble is doing?" she asked. "He will be unconscious of her music, and just thump his own, and say 'How glorious!' when he has got to the end of the piece."

Lord Heron liked this; he was heavy of body, and inclined, when left alone, to be pompous in mind. But he appreciated agility in others.

"Yes, that may happen," he said, "but the treble will probably refuse to be thumped out of existence for ever. She will play a few pieces with him, and then—go and play pieces with somebody else."

Lucia still pursued her private theme.

"But the bass may go farther," she said. "He may kiss her hand at the end and say, 'How wonderfully you played that! How you inspire me!' All the time it has only been his own music that he really heard."

He laughed.

"Then she ought never to have consented to play duets with him at all," he said.

At that moment the compass-needle of conversation swerved. Beginning at the other end of his table, Edgar suddenly spoke to his left-hand neighbour about Japanese art, and the direction of talk altered. Fay Alderson turned to the left, and Lucia turned to the left also.

"I love seeing an excuse discomfited," she said to Charlie Lindsay. "You surely ought to have looked at the clock before you said you thought dinner was at half-past eight."

"I looked at you first," he said.

Conversation had blossomed again.

"Maud's friend," he added quietly.

"Yes, she was here to-day. She told me, you know. I congratulate you most sincerely. Yes, I am her friend. She is adorable, is she not? Nobody knows it so well—anyhow better than I. Oh, this isn't dinner-talk. Do let us talk about Maud afterwards. At present, who put the peacock in the cupboard? No, on the whole, don't tell me; priceless fragments can be marred by their context."

"I want to talk about Maud," said Charlie.

"Then you mustn't. I hear you threw over another engagement to come here. I thought that was charming of you."

"Edgar is a dreadful gossip," said Charlie. "I recommend you never to tell him anything private. Do you know, I was