‘That’s very good, I think,’ Nixie whispered under her breath to him.
Then Toby advanced, climbing down laboriously from her perch on the broken bench, and stalked up to the spot just vacated by her brother. She, too, was suitably dressed for the occasion, but owing to her diminutive size, and the fact that she did not reach up to the patch of moonlight, it was not possible to distinguish more than the white cap pinned on to her hair. It looked like a housekeeper’s cap. She, too, carried a wand of office. Was it a hunting crop or poker, Paul wondered?
Toby, then, with much more effort than Jonah, repeated the formula of admission. She got the lines a little mixed, however:—
You’ve applied to our Secret Society,
Which is full of unusual propriety,
And, in spite of your past,
We admit you at last,
But we hope you’ll behave with variety.
‘I will endeavour to do so,’ said Paul, replying with a low bow.
When he rose again to an upright position, Nixie was standing close in front of him. One arm still held up the curtains, but the other pointed directly into his face.