Sleep and His Brother Read Online Free PDF Page B

exciting,” said Mr. Costain boyishly. “Lady Sospice, you may know, has handed a lot of her papers to the local society, and among them the secretary found a receipt from the De Morgan factory for a sixty-foot run of tiles in a pattern entirely unique. Naturally when I came in I looked about me. Despite what you have done to it, this remains a gloriously typical example of High Domestic Grandiose.”
    The lecturer’s hoot was back in his voice. Perhaps Mrs. Dixon-Jones considered herself an even more glorious example of the genre, for she sniffed derisively.
    â€œ Gloriously typical,” insisted Mr. Costain. “Be that as it may, I arrived outside your room and heard voices, so I decided to wait a few minutes before making myself known. And down here, under this appalling gub, I spotted a checker pattern of corrugations. I could do nothing but investigate.
    â€œIt’ll all have to come off, you know. I will see that a schedule of suitable contemporary colour schemes is prepared for you.”
    â€œI won’t stand for it!” said Mrs. Dixon-Jones. “I simply won’t stand for it!”
    â€œI’m afraid you will have no choice, dear lady.”
    â€œGet out! Get out at once!”
    â€œPlease, Posey,” said Dr. Silver. While hoot and scream had reverberated under the arches, he had watched the two of them through his joke glasses as if they had been part of an experiment. Now he pitched his voice at a level of calm authority that seemed to still even the echoes.
    â€œMr. Costard,” he said. “We are here to run a home for an unfortunate group of children called cathypnics. Our responsibility is to them, and indirectly to the Ministry of Health. I say ‘indirectly’ because we are an independent charity, though most of the children here are covered to some extent by grant from their local authorities; even so this leaves us with a lot of money still to find. This local society you speak of contrived to have a preservation order placed on this building, which we have accepted with a good grace. It is true that the Ministry of Works provided a substantial sum for repairs, but we had to find almost an equal sum, because (as I am sure you know) the money raised by the local society was derisory. Fortunately, we had a windfall. Now, we allowed all this to happen because we wish to be good citizens and to be left in peace to get on with our proper work, which is the care of the children. It is of medical importance that cathypnic children should be surrounded by bright, simple colours. The choice of these colours is a question of science, not of aesthetics or art history. We shall certainly not allow ourselves to be dictated to over a matter like this.”
    â€œMy dear sir,” said Mr. Costain. “I do not believe, as I said, that you will have the option. You are sitting on an absolutely outstanding example of a type of architecture and décor which is becoming increasingly rare. You are also occupying several acres of open space in an area which is badly in need of elbow room. Public opinion is certain to go against you if the dispute is allowed to become public, and the funds you need for your work will consequently decline. Whereas—”
    â€œWho let you in?” interrupted Dr. Silver, very gently but with a weight and timing that stopped Mr. Costain dead. He had seemed so sure of the upper ground that his finger had begun to wag under the olive nose and the old Bloomsbury emphasis to modulate his hoot, so that he had said, for instance, “absol ooo tly outst ee nding.” Now he blinked and changed gear.
    â€œTwo of the inmates,” he said.
    â€œAh. Interested as you must have been in the architecture, Mr. Costard, you may have failed to notice one of the curious side effects of the disease. Cathypnic children have an almost instant appeal. The staff here call them ‘dormice,’ but visitors usually think of