Free Rodmoor by John Cowper Powys

as the sea. It’s just the quite definite but somewhat complicated business of managing two love affairs at the same time! I’m sorry for you, little Adrian, I’m extremely sorry for you. It’s a situation not unknown in the history of the world, in fact, it might be called quite common. But I’m afraid that doesn’t make it any pleasanter for you. However, it can be dealt with, with a little skill, Adrian, with just a little skill!”
    The man accused in this teasing manner turned furiously round, an angry outburst of blind protest trembling on his tongue. At that moment there was a low knock at the outer door. Baltazar jumped to his feet.“That must be Raughty,” he cried. “I begged him to come round to-night. I so longed for you to meet him.” He hastened out and admitted the visitor with a cordial welcome. After a momentary pause and a good deal of shuffling—for Dr. Raughty was careful to wear not only an overcoat but also goloshes and even gaiters when the weather was inclement—the two men entered the room and Stork began an elaborate introduction .
    “Dr. Fingal Raughty,” he said, “Mr. Adria—” but to his astonishment Sorio intervened, “The Doctor and I have already become quite well acquainted,” he remarked, shaking the visitor vigorously by the hand. “I’m afraid I wasn’t as polite as I ought to have been on that occasion,” he went on, speaking in an unnaturally loud voice and with a forced laugh, “but the Doctor will forgive me. The Doctor I’m sure will make allowances .”
    Dr. Raughty gave him a quick glance, at once friendly and ironical, and then he turned to Stork. “Mother Lorman’s dead,” he remarked with a little sigh, “dead at last. She was ninety-seven and had thirty grandchildren. She gurgled in her throat at the last with a noise like a nightingale when its voice breaks in June. I prefer deaths of this kind to any other, but they’re all pitiful.”
    “Nance tells me you were present at old Doorm’s death, Doctor,” said Adrian while their host moved off to the kitchen to secure glasses and refreshment.
    The Doctor nodded. “I measured that fellow’s skull,” he remarked gravely. “It was asymmetrical and very curiously so. The interesting thing is that there exists in this part of the coast a definite traditionof malformed skulls. They recur in nearly all the old families. Brand Renshaw is a splendid example. His skull ought to be given to a museum. It is beautiful, quite beautiful, in the anterior lobes.”
    Baltazar returned carrying a tray. The eyes of Dr. Raughty gleamed with a mellow warmth. “ Nutmeg ,” he remarked, approaching the tray and touching every object upon it lightly and reverently. “Nutmeg, lemon, hot water, gin— and brandy! It’s an admirable choice and profoundly adapted to the occasion . May I put the hot water on the hob until we’re ready for it?”
    While Baltazar once more withdrew from the scene, Dr. Raughty remarked, gravely and irritably, to Sorio that it was a mistake to substitute brandy for rum. “He does it because he can’t get the best rum, but it’s a ridiculous thing to do. Any rum is better than no rum when it’s a question of punch-making. Are you with me in this, Mr. Sorio?”
    Adrian expressed such complete and emphatic agreement that for the moment the Doctor seemed almost embarrassed .
    On Baltazar’s return to the room, however, he hazarded another suggestion. “What about having the kettle itself brought in here?”
    Stork looked at him without speaking and placed on the table a small plate of macaroons. The Doctor glanced whimsically at Sorio and, helping himself from the little plate, muttered in a low voice after he had nibbled the edge of a biscuit, “Yes, these seem perfectly up to par to-day.”
    The three men had scarcely settled themselves downin their respective chairs around the fire than Adrian began speaking hurriedly and nervously.
    “I have an extraordinary feeling,” he said,