‘Fishing,’ said Kenneth, because it was the only thing he could think of.
‘Make toffee,’ said Conrad.
‘Build a great big house with all the bricks,’ said George.
‘We can’t make toffee,’ Alison explained gently but firmly, ‘because you know what the pan was like last time, and cook said, “never again, not much.” And it’s no good building houses, Georgie, when you could be out of doors. And fishing’s simply rotten when we’ve been at it all day. I’ve thought of something.’
So of course all the others said, ‘What?’
‘We’ll have a pageant, a river pageant, on [p238 the moat. We’ll all dress up and hang Chinese lanterns in the trees. I’ll be the Sunflower lady that the Troubadour came all across the sea, because he loved her so, for, and one of you can be the Troubadour, and the others can be sailors or anything you like.’
‘I shall be the Troubadour,’ said Conrad with decision.
‘I think you ought to let Kenneth because he’s the visitor,’ said George, who would have liked to be it immensely himself, or anyhow did not see why Conrad should be a troubadour if he couldn’t.
Conrad said what manners required, which was:
‘Oh! all right, I don’t care about being the beastly Troubadour.’