“It can scarcely be they,” I said. “They would come round and try all the hotels first, surely.”
“Oh, a man like Brentin would do anything!” Teddy cried.
I looked into the first carriage, and soon recognized a little, rather old, cloak Lucy used to wear, with a high Medici collar. She never had much money for her clothes, poor child, and was apt to be a little behind the fashions.
“It’s really they, Teddy,” I said. “Come along and we’ll give them a fright. They deserve it.”
“They do, indeed!” shouted Teddy, scarlet with rage.
We peeped in cautiously at the entrance, and there they were. We could see them all crossing from the Parthenon towards the Erechtheum, headed by that toad Brentin. We let them get well inside the walls of the beautiful little temple, and then we went quickly across to the left towards them.
Just as we got up to the white marble walls, I pushed Teddy and said, “Hide.” Then I went on in alone. Brentin was just saying, “This is apparently the Erechtheum. There’s mighty little of it left; why don’t they put it straight, anyway?”
You should just have seen their faces when they turned and saw me. Lucy, who was looking very pale, ran tottering towards me with a little cry, and nearly fainted in my arms. My sister followed, and was soon on my other shoulder. Miss Rybot waved her parasol, Forsyth and Hines cheered, and Arthur Masters gave a loud gone away! All Brentin said was, with rather a forced smile, “Well, all right, eh? Here you are. You got my telegram?”
We sat down on the fallen blocks of marble, and everybody began talking at once. Where was Teddy, they asked, and why wasn’t he with me? Had he really been caught, or had he, after all, run straight away home in his fright?
As if trying to avoid a painful subject, “Why didn’t you come to Venice, as we arranged?” I asked.