When Kew finally disentangled himself from the company of this jolly creature, it was very late. But the voice of Anonyma arrested him on his way to bed. Her face, with a corn-coloured plait on each side of it, looked at him cautiously from a dark doorway.
"Kew," said Anonyma, "I won't stand it. We must be rescued."
"Nobody can remove her now without also removing Russ and Christina," said Kew. "The reconciliation has gone too far."
"Then Russ must be sacrificed, and even the car," said Anonyma firmly. "Gustus and I can hire if we must. That woman must be removed. The jealous cat!"
Kew began to see light. "I'll rescue you, then," he replied. "I'll think of a way in my bath."
* * * * *
Next morning a great noise, centring in the bathroom, overflowed through
the inn. It was the noise of Kew singing joyful extracts from Peer
Gynt. Do you remember the beginning of the end of the Hall of the
Mountain King? It goes:
"Bomp—chink…. Bomp—chink…. Tootle—tootle—tootle—tootle—tootle—tootle-tee…. Bomp-chink, …" etc., etc.
The way in which Kew rendered this passage, notoriously a difficult one for a solo voice, would have conveyed to any one who knew him that he had solved both his problems.
Anonyma knocked on the bathroom door, and said, "Cousin Gustus's headache is still bad."