Colin saw Dennis’s wide-eyed gaze, fascinated and puzzled. He had settled that he did not want the boy to know anything about that at present.... And yet surely you sowed in winter the seed that did not germinate till the spring. How marvellously dramatic, too, that Dennis, still hardly free from the soft enveloping sheath of childhood, should learn the beginning of wisdom from this aged Sibyl. It was like taking a child to learn about Druids from Stonehenge.... But Dennis was too young yet: it would never do to initiate him into the final revelation, till he had learned the rudiments and the alphabet of the creed. Simultaneously Violet spoke to him. “Oh, Colin, stop her,” she whispered. “She mustn’t go on. She mustn’t tell him about the chapel.” ....So Violet knew: he always guessed she had known. He turned to old Lady Yardley again. “Granny, you’re being very naughty,” he said. “I promise you you shan’t come down to dinner again unless you’re quiet. I won’t have it: do you understand? Now go away with Violet. If you say a word more, you shan’t have any whist at all. Take her away. Violet.” Violet got up. “Come along, Granny,” she said. “And you too, Dennis.” “Nothing of the sort,” said Colin sharply. “Dennis is going to stay with us.” He waited till Violet and the old lady had gone. “Dennis, old boy,” he said. “You were quite right when you said your great-grandmother was dotty. She was talking gibberish. There wasn’t a word of sense in what she was saying.” Dennis looked unconvinced. “But she must have meant something, Father,” he said. “Did she mean the chapel by Mr. Douglas’s rooms?” Colin was always swift in invention. “Very likely. But you know all about that. I built it, as I’ve told you before, to complete the original plan of the house. Very likely old Colin intended to be buried there. Memorial chapel, you know. Just think of the old lady as dotty. She’s got the legend on her mind. She always had. Why, I really believe that if Satan came to her now, and said ‘Sign, please,’ as they do in shops, she’d find one drop of blood in her body still and use it up. Give Mr. Douglas some port, and take half a glass yourself. Not more, Dennis: we can’t have you like your grandfather Ronald before you grow up.” Dennis gave that delicious half-treble croak of laughter. “Good Lord, I shouldn’t like to be like Grandfather Ronald,” he said. “He was a rum ’un.... Father, did he know about the legend, in the way Granny meant?” “No, Dennis, I should say he didn’t. But we’ve finished with the legend for to-night. Someday I’ll tell you more about it.” “Hurrah! When?” “When I think that you will be able to understand it. Mr. Douglas and I will set you an examination paper.” “Oh, not in the holidays,” said the boy. “You won’t know it’s being set you,” said his father. “That’s an improvement on the Eton plan,” remarked Dennis. * * * * *