Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 1.pdf/177

Rh cane chairs—and examining it with extraordinary interest. He opened it. "What a curious little mechanism!" he said. "What can it be for?"

The Vicar did not answer. The angelic costume certainly was—the Vicar knew it was a case for a French phrase—but he could scarcely remember it. He so rarely used French. It was not de trop, he knew. Anything but de trop. The Angel was de trop, but certainly not his costume. Ah! Sans culotte!

The Vicar examined his visitor critically—for the first time. "He will be difficult to explain," he said to himself softly.

The Angel stuck the sunshade into the turf and went to smell the sweet-brier. The sunshine fell upon his brown hair and gave it almost the appearance of a halo. He pricked his finger. "Odd!" he said. "Pain again."

"Yes," said the Vicar, thinking aloud. "He's very beautiful and curious as he is. I should like him best so. But I am afraid I must."

He approached the Angel with a nervous cough. § 11

"," said the Vicar, "were ladies."

"How grotesque," said the Angel, smiling and smelling the sweet-brier. "And such quaint shapes!"

"Possibly," said the Vicar. "Did you, ahem, notice how they behaved?"

"They went away. Seemed, indeed, to run away. Frightened? I, of course, was frightened at things 145