England -- Fiction; Gay men -- Fiction; Italy -- Fiction; Paranormal fiction
“Dottiness,” said Colin at once. “You discovered she was dotty weeks
ago. And just now, you remember, she thought that you were me as a boy
again. That wasn’t very clear-headed, was it? And all the rest was just
as muddled. Don’t think anything more about it, Dennis.”
That cloud did not clear away at once from Dennis’s forehead. His father
had clearly wanted to tell him something last night, and, by an unerring
instinct, he divined that this same something lurked behind what he had
just stopped old Lady Yardley from saying. It concerned the legend,
clearly; some practical personal application of the legend....
“Dennis, you’re not doing what I told you,” said Colin sharply. “You’re
thinking of Grannie’s dottiness.”
Dennis pulled in that sail of his mind which was still catching that
mysterious breeze.
“Righto,” he said.
“Come and sit next me then, you exclusive brute,” said Colin, “instead
of sitting at the other side of the table.... And you’ve liked your last
day, have you, Dennis?”
“Oh, Father, it has been lovely,” said Dennis, drawing a chair quite
close to him. “Why, they all went away at eleven, and I’ve been with you
ever since except when I had my bath, and even then you came in in the
middle. Ten solid hours with you. Not bad.”
“No, not very bad. You’ve made an elderly gent like me play golf and
tennis and shoot pigeons. I shall have a rest-cure after you’ve gone.”
“Do. Come and have it at Eton. There’s a nursing home somewhere in the
town. Elderly gent!”
“Well, don’t rub it in,” said Colin. “Come on, Dennis. We must go and
play whist. You and I will rook your mother and Granny. And then, after
being up till nearly four last night, you shall go softly and silently
to bed like the Snark.”
“Not silent. You’ll come and talk, won’t you?”
“Perhaps I’ll look in, but I don’t promise. I must sit up and do some
jobs.”
“Why?” said Dennis.
“Because you’ve prevented my doing them all day.”
Colin smiled to himself as he said that. It was most emphatically true:
he would concentrate on his jobs to-night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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