With this they separated and went to their respective homes for tea.
William was rather silent at tea. He was silent because he was thinking about the Charles I costume. He was rather vague as to what a Charles I costume was like, but he had a well-founded suspicion that the only fancy costume he possessed—a much-worn Red Indian costume—would not pass muster in its stead. He wondered whether they could transform it in some way to a Charles I costume by adding an old lace curtain for instance, or wearing a waste-paper basket as a headdress instead of the feathered band.... His sister, he knew, had a fairy queen dress. Mentally he considered the picture of the fairy queen dress superimposed upon the Red Indian costume. It would look sort of queer and after all historical dresses had to look sort of queer—that was the most important thing about them—so it might do. Robert seemed to be talking a good deal. William began to listen idly.
“I’ve seen her again,” Robert was saying, “she was looking out of a window upstairs. I heard him call to her. She’s called Gloria.... Haven’t you really seen her, mother?”
“No,” said Mrs. Brown mildly, “I’ve not seen either of them.”
A glorious blush overspread Robert’s face.
“She’s wonderful,” he said, “marvellous. I simply can’t describe her. But it seems so strange that one never sees her in the village. One just catches accidental glimpses of her as one passes the house by chance.... It seems so strange that one doesn’t see her about.... Gloria, that’s her name. I heard him call her that. I think it’s such a beautiful name, don’t you?”
“Perhaps,” agreed Mrs. Brown doubtfully; “somehow it suggests to me the name of a gas cooker or a furniture polish, but I daresay that it is beautiful really.”
“She’s beautiful anyway,” said Robert hotly.
William was listening intently. Mrs. Brown, perceiving this, hastily changed the conversation. She was aware that William took an active and not always a kindly interest in his brother’s frequently changing love affairs.
“You’re going to the fancy dress dance to-night, aren’t you, dear?” she said to Robert.