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went to the front door, supported by Gerry, and determined to say that she had no rooms after all.
    But the Canon, who had got out of his car and was standing in the porch, was so very civil and affable, and she felt it to be so great a concession that he did not seem to be angry with her, that in a burst of gratitude she let him the rooms at once. It was, she felt, so very, very kind of him to be in such a good temper. Nothing seemed to put him out; he was positively glad to hear that there would be a number of children in the house, he did not object to small rooms, and he offered to pay for the week in advance. The bargain was concluded in a blaze of sunshine, and the only cloud came from the awkwardness of his silly daughter who could not give an intelligible answer to Gerry’s question about the luggage. She twitched and muttered and grimaced until her father’s attention was drawn down upon her. He gave her a glance of deep disgust and said:
    ‘Since my daughter chooses to behave like a half-wit I must answer you myself, Mr. Siddal. The small blue suitcase is hers. All the rest of the luggage is mine.’
    And he cut short further incoherencies by adding:
    ‘That will do, Evangeline. If you can’t talk sense, don’t talk at all.’
    Nothing else occurred to ruffle him except a littleunpleasantness in the hall, where he encountered the Paleys just setting off on their day’s picnic. Mrs. Siddal introduced them, and the Canon, in his sunny mood, was ready to shake hands. But they merely bowed and marched out of the door. Mrs. Siddal had become so inured to their habitual haughtiness, to the fact that they never smiled at any one, that she did not at first estimate the impression it must make on the Canon. He stood staring after them, unable for a moment to speak.
    ‘What intolerable insolence,’ he said, after a while. ‘Who is Mr. Paley?’
    ‘He’s an architect. You must have heard of him. He did the Wessex University buildings.’
    ‘Oh? That man! Yes. I’ve heard of him. Is he always as offensive as this?’
    ‘He … they’re very reserved people,’ quavered Mrs. Siddal. ‘I don’t think they meant to be rude.’
    ‘Oh, don’t you? I do. I’ve never been treated like that in my life.’
    He continued to discourse upon the incivility of Mr. Paley while she took him upstairs and showed him his room. And the sight of the offending couple, as they crossed the sands, kept him for some time at his window, drumming on the glass and muttering:
    ‘I foresee that I shall have a word or two to say to Mr. Paley unless he mends his manners.’
    Gerry, when she went downstairs again, was reproachful .
    ‘What have you done?’ he said. ‘Why did you do it?’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know. I was so frightened of him. And he was so nice, when he asked for the rooms. I couldn’t face upsetting him.’
    ‘He wasn’t so amazingly nice,’ said Gerry. ‘Just normally polite. What did you expect him to do? Break all the furniture?’
    ‘I’m sure I’ve seen him before somewhere. I wish I could remember … and I seem to know his name….’
    Gerry took the Canon’s baggage up in two journeys, and then carried the little blue suitcase along to Miss Wraxton’s room. The girl was sitting on her bed when he went in, quite still for once, and staring straight in front of her. She did not move or thank him when he put down her suitcase. But as he went out she smiled, not at him but at something behind him. It was a very odd smile indeed, and it sent a chill down his spine.
    That girl, he thought, as he went downstairs, is in a fair way to go off her rocker.
8. Feast and Fast
    The train from Paddington was crowded, and many people were obliged to stand in the corridor all the way to Penzance. But the four Gifford children had seats. They had neither waited in the queue outside the barrier nor struggled on the platform. Two heavily bribed porters got the seats for them, under the generalship of a secretary and a butler,