A Wreath for Rivera Read Online Free PDF Page A

some distant part of the house. “They are going,” said Lady Pastern hurriedly. “It is the end of the
répétition
. In a moment your uncle and Félicité will appear. Carlisle, may I implore you — ”
    “I don’t suppose — ” Carlisle began dubiously, and at that juncture, hearing her uncle’s voice on the landing, rose nervously to her feet. Lady Pastern, with a grimace of profound significance, laid her hand on her niece’s arm. Carlisle felt a hysterical giggle rise in her throat. The door opened and Lord Pastern and Bagott came trippingly into the room.

CHAPTER III
PREPRANDIAL
    He was short, not more than five foot seven, but so compactly built that he did not give the impression of low stature. Everything about him was dapper, though not obtrusively so; his clothes, the flower in his coat, his well-brushed hair and moustache. His eyes, light grey with pinkish rims, had a hot impertinent look, his underlip jutted out and there were clearly defined spots of local colour over his cheek-bones. He came briskly into the room, bestowed a restless kiss upon his niece and confronted his wife.
    “Who’s dinin’?” he said.
    “Ourselves, Félicité, Carlisle, of course, and Edward Manx. And I have asked Miss Henderson to join us to-night.”
    “Two more,” said Lord Pastern. “I’ve asked Bellairs and Rivera.”
    “That is quite impossible, George,” said Lady Pastern, calmly.
    “Why?”
    “Apart from other unanswerable considerations, there is not enough food for two extra guests.”
    “Tell ’em to open a tin.”
    “I cannot receive these persons for dinner.”
    Lord Pastern grinned savagely. “All right. Rivera can take Félicité to a restaurant and Bellairs can come here. Same number as before. How are you, Lisle?”
    “I’m very well, Uncle George.”
    “Félicité will not dine out with this individual, George. I shall not permit it.”
    “You can’t stop ’em.”
    “Félicité will respect my wishes.”
    “Don’t be an ass,” said Lord Pastern. “You’re thirty years behind the times, m’dear. Give a gel her head and she’ll find her feet.” He paused, evidently delighted with this aphorism. “Way you’re goin’, you’ll have an elopement on your hands. Comes to that, I don’t see the objection.”
    “Are you demented, George?”
    “Half the women in London’d give anything to be in Fee’s boots.”
    “A Mexican bandsman.”
    “Fine, well-set-up young feller. Inoculate your old stock. That’s Shakespeare, ain’t it Lisle? I understand he comes of a perfectly good Spanish family.
Hidalgo
, or whatever it is,” he added vaguely. “A feller of good family happens to be an artist and. you go and condemn him. Sort of thing that makes you sick.” He turned to his niece: “I’ve been thinkin’ seriously of givin’ up the title, Lisle.”
    “
George
!”
    “About dinner, can you find something for them to eat or can’t you? Speak up.”
    Lady Pastern’s shoulders rose with a shudder. She glanced at Carlisle, who thought she detected a glint of cunning in her aunt’s eye. “Very well, George,” Lady Pastern said. “I shall speak to the servants. I shall speak to Dupont. Very well.”
    Lord Pastern darted an extremely suspicious glance at his wife and sat down. “Nice to see you, Lisle,” he said. “What have you been doin’ with yourself?”
    “I’ve been in Greece, Famine Relief.”
    “If people understood dietetics there wouldn’t be all this starvation,” said Lord Pastern darkly. “Are you keen on music?”
    Carlisle returned a guarded answer. Her aunt, she realized, was attempting to convey by means of a fixed stare and raised eyebrows some message of significance.
    “I’ve taken it up, seriously,” Lord Pastern continued. “Swing. Boogie-woogie. Jive. Find it keeps me up to the mark.” He thumped with his heel on the carpet, beat his hands together and in a strange nasal voice intoned: “ ‘Shoo-shoo-shoo, baby, Bye-bye, bye Baby.’