“Oh, no one can say as ever I was gay meself, though I did ’ave me troubles. But the p’lice are that interfering, reg’lar nosy Parkers, I call ’em—but Lor’ bless you, sir, young gentlemen will be young gentlemen, now won’t they?—and my girls never made no complaints. Reg’lar mothered them, I did, and …”
“I’m sure you did, Mrs. Grimaldi,” Gaveston interrupted, feeling that the ground grew delicate. Henceforward he had better restrict his questionings to the professional period of his landlady’s varied career.
But he was far from narrow-minded, and he took seven of her rooms for the coming term. They would be redecorated, of course, he explained, and an additional bath installed. With a little foresight he might yet make Malmaison Lodge a new and brighter Chequers. For when he had already engaged his rooms, he made an enchanting discovery. Behind the house there was a little lavender-garden, and at its centre a classic gazebo evocatory of the Age of Stucco, in the elegant decay of its caduke and lezarded pilasters, a rocaille fountain, too, that had not played since poor long-dead demi-reps had received by its brink the libertines of the Regency, and round it three moss-clad Cupidons of lead, who must have watched unblushingly the dangerous dalliance of crinoline with pantaloon.
These domestic preparations made a grateful break in a busy public life, and term came to an end almost before Gaveston had realized that November had slipped into December.
But he caught the 8.37 to Paddington on December 10th.
CHAPTER XII
FUNAMBULESQUE
Dinner-time on the 11th found Gaveston complaining about the half-baked condition of a soufflé at the best hotel in Munich.
He never did things by halves, and his Christmas Vacation was to be devoted entirely to the furtherance of The Mongoose’s political aims. This trip abroad had been planned for some weeks, and the strictest Teutonic discipline had been enforced at every frontier-station to keep this most incognito of journeys a secret. In his breast-pocket he carried a letter of introduction: for, although the editor of The Mongoose was of course not unknown at the Bavarian Court, Gaveston knew the value of quickly establishing a personal relationship.
He had been quick to consult Uncle Wilkinson.