England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Uncles -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
His wife had moved over to the window and was looking out at the sky in
the way that ladies look at the East window when something in the
preacher's sermon is particularly applicable to a neighbour. Jasmine
read the letter, which was from the director of the Spa:
Spa Gardens Company, Limited,
Spaborough,
_August 15th._
_Dear Sir Hector Grant,_
_I am writing to you personally and confidentially to ask you
whether season ticket 17874 is really held by one of your family
party. The caretaker of the Concert Room has complained to me that
a young lady holding season ticket 17874, which was traced to the
name of Miss Jasmine Grant, Strathspey House, removed the green
baize cover from the big drum yesterday afternoon the 14th inst.
and struck it several times. We have not been able to trace any
reason for her behaviour, and I should be much obliged if you would
give the matter your kind attention. The Company has of course no
wish to take any action in the matter, and is content to leave all
the necessary steps in your hands. I may add that the drum has been
examined carefully, and I am glad to be able to assure you that it
is quite uninjured. At the same time we rely on our season ticket
holders to set an example to the casual visitors, and I am sure you
will appreciate the delicacy of my position._
_Believe me, my dear Sir Hector Grant,_
_Yours very faithfully,_
_John Pershore,_
_Managing Director._
"Yes, I did bang the drum," Jasmine confessed.
Now if Sir Hector Grant had been asked by one of his patients to cure an
uncontrollable impulse to beat big drums he would have known how to
prescribe for her, and within a week or two of her visit ladies would
have been going round each asking the other if she had heard of Sir
Hector Grant's latest and most wonderful cure. His niece, however, did
not present herself to him as a clinical subject; he had no desire to
analyse her psyche for her own benefit or for the elucidation of the
Flatus Complex.
"No wonder you were lost," he said bitterly. "I don't suppose you
expected me to look for you among the drums? I don't wish to make a
great fuss about nothing, but I should like to point out that you cannot
accuse me of being backward in coming forward to ... er ... show our ...
er ... affection, and we look, not unreasonably, I hope, for a little
... er ... sympathy on your side. I shall write to Mr. Pershore and
explain that you were brought up in Italy and did not appreciate the
importance of what you were doing. That will, I hope, close the matter.
I cannot think why you don't go and play golf with the girls," he added
fretfully.
"I should love to go and play golf," Jasmine declared.
Lady Grant now came forward from the window: perhaps, during this
painful scene she had made up her mind that her niece must be added to
the list of her charities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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