I will say that it wasn't dear mother's fault. She even stooped to equivocation, or, to put it plainly, lying to keep him away. She told him that she didn't know by which train she was coming, when she knew perfectly well. She told him our spare-room bed would only hold one. Oh, mother! And she told him that there had been burglaries in the neighbourhood of Dorking, and it would be unsafe to leave the house to servants. To all of which he said, "Pooh!"
From what I can gather he lay in waiting at the station like a detective in plain clothes, and pounced upon mother just as she was saying to Mary, the parlourmaid, "Good-bye; you will take great care of the master, and give him kidneys with his bacon twice a week."
"No, she won't," he said sardonically as he limped into the carriage, "for she won't get the chance. I am coming with you, Emma. I refuse to be left to the mercy of servants when my gout is so troublesome. It is most selfish and unreasonable of you to suggest such a thing. I am as much to be considered as Marguerite," at which he planked himself firmly on to the seat opposite to mother and glowered at her.
At the moment he is seated in the sun with his feet on Amelia's fair white step, which is now covered with a sort Of Egyptian hieroglyphic—à la the Tompkinses'. When she wheeled me in the other evening after a long day in the garden, and I caught sight of the step, I was filled with a great amazement, for I was unaware that Amelia understood the ancient Egyptian language. A series of curves and dots, and flourishes and symbolic signs met my gaze. I leaned forward and translated with fluency
—a water-line,
—the sun,
—a reed,