"What do you propose, then?" asked Peppino, showing signs of surrender.
Lucia exerted her utmost wiles.
"Caro!" she said. "I want 'oo to propose. Daisy and me, we silly women, we want 'oo and Georgie to tell us what to do. But if Lucia must speak, I fink—"
She paused a moment, and observing strong disgust at her playfulness on
Mrs Quantock's face, reverted to ordinary English again.
"I should do something of this sort," she said. "I should say that dear Daisy's Guru had left us quite suddenly, and that he has had a call somewhere else. His work here was done; he had established our classes, and set all our feet upon the Way. He always said that something of the sort might happen to him——"
"I believe he had planned it all along," said Georgie. "He knew the thing couldn't last for ever, and when my sisters recognised him, he concluded it was time to bolt."
"With all the available property he could lay hands on," said Mrs
Quantock.
Lucia fingered her tassel.
"Now about the burglaries," she said. "It won't do to let it be known that three burglaries were committed in one night, and that simultaneously Daisy's Guru was called away—"
"My Guru, indeed!" said Mrs Quantock, fizzing with indignation at the repetition of this insult.