Sylvia & Michael: The later adventures of Sylvia ScarlettMacKenzie, Compton
General
Sylvia & Michael: The later adventures of Sylvia Scarlett
MacKenzie, Compton
Fiction
That transposition of Greek initials had sounded uncommonly like Philip.
"That's right," the clerk replied.
"Oh well, I know him. I should like to see him personally."
"See Mr. Iredale? But he's the O.C.P.T.N.C."
"Does that confer invisibility?" she asked. "I tell you I'm a friend of
his. If you send up my card I'm sure he'll see me."
"But he never sees anybody," Mr. Mathers objected. "I'm afraid you
didn't understand that he's the Officer Controlling Passenger Traffic
from Neutral Countries in Bucharest. If he was to see everybody that
came to this office, he wouldn't be able to control _himself_, let alone
passenger traffic. No, really, joking apart, madam, Mr. Iredale is very
busy and by no means well."
"He's worn out," put in Miss Johnstone, who, having by now plaited four
necklaces into a single coil, was swinging the result round and round
like a skipping-rope. "His nerves are worn out. But if you like, I'll
take up your card."
"You might ask him at the same time if he wants all the Greek names
entered under _Y_ transferred to _G_, will you?" said Mr. Mathers. "Oh,
and Miss Johnstone," he called after her, "there seems to be some
confusion between _Tch_ and _Ts_. Ask him if he's got any preference.
Awful names the people in this part of Europe get hold of," he added to
Sylvia. "Even Mr. Iredale can't transpose the Russians, and of course
the War Office likes accuracy. There was rather a strafe the other day
because a man traveling from here to Spain got arrested three times on
the way, owing to his name being rather like a suspect spelled
differently by us, the French, and the Italians. As a matter of fact,
the original suspect's dead, but his name was spelled a fourth way in
the notification that was sent around, and so it's not realized yet."
"It must be rather like that whispering game," Sylvia said. "You know,
where somebody at one end of the room starts a sentence and it comes out
quite differently at the other."
Sylvia could not make out why she did not feel more nervous when she was
following Miss Johnstone up-stairs to meet Philip for the first time
since she had run away from him, thirteen years ago. The fact was that
her anxiety to escape from Rumania with Queenie outweighed everything
else, and she was so glad to find somebody she knew in a position of
authority who would be able to help her in the matter of Queenie's
passport that any awkwardness was quenched in relief. The discovery of
Philip was such an encouraging answer by destiny to the reappearance of
Zozo.
He came forward to greet her from behind a large roll-top desk, and she
saw that he looked tired and ill, yet, except for his baldness, not
really much older.
"Would you have recognized me, Philip?" she asked.
He was far more nervous than she was, and he stumbled a good deal over
Mr. Mathers's questions.
"I'll tell him you're too busy now to answer," said Miss Johnstone at
last in a cheerful voice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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