“I made a mistake,” she said. “Father’s forty-six. Next June. And I shall go to Walter’s new Lecture. He’s in the guard’s van. I mean the van-guard. And Prince Ead-mond’s is in the van-guard too. Especially Miss Miles. She says the Saturn-alia is a time of great li-cen-tiousness and dancing. Are they going to start it soon?”
Cosimo was nervous again. He cleared his throat.—“Britomart—,” he began; but Miss Belchamber went on.
“I hope they are. Walter says it would be a very good thing. I shall dance ‘Rufty Tufty.’ And ‘The Black Nag.’ I love ‘The Black Nag.’ That’s why I’m having a hot bath. Hot baths open the pores, or sweat-ducts. Then you close them again with a cold sponge. I always close them again with a cold sponge.”
Cosimo cleared his throat again and had another try.—“Listen, Britomart—we were talking about you——”
Miss Belchamber looked complacently at her crossed Parian-marble ankles. Then she raised one of them, and her fingers explored the common tendon of the soleus and gastrocnemius.
“The soleus,” she said, “acts when the knee-joint is flexed. In ‘Rufty Tufty’ it acts. Both of them, of course. And the manage-ment of the breath is very important. It would be a very good thing if every-body opened their windows and took a hun-dred deep breaths before the Saturn-alia begins. I shall, and I shall make Corin and Bonniebell. Or won’t they be able to go if it’s very late? If it’s after their bedtime I could bring them away early and then go back. I am so looking forward to it.”
Cosimo made a third attempt.—“Britomart—”, he said gravely.
“What?” said Miss Belchamber.
“I want to tell you about a rather important discussion we’ve been having——”
“Then shall I go and turn the tap off? The water will run cold. Then the sweat-ducts would have to be closed before they are opened, and that’s wrong.”