The Sunny Side. A. A. Milne

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СКАЧАТЬ (he was carried away by memories of his schoolboy French), "le frère du jardinier—er—" He wheeled round and saw me; introduced me again; introduced Myra as my wife, Archie as her brother, and Dahlia as Archie's wife; and then with a sudden inspiration presented Thomas grandly as "le beau-père du petit fils de mes amis Monsieur et Madame Mannering." Thomas seemed more assured of his place as Peter's godfather than as the brother of the gardener.

      There were four ladies; we shook hands with all of them. It took us a long time, and I doubt if we got it all in even so, for twice I found myself shaking hands with Simpson. But these may have been additional ones thrown in. It was over at last, and we followed the staff indoors.

      And then we had another surprise. It was broken to us by Dahlia, who, at Simpson's urgent request, took up the position of lady of the house, and forthwith received the flowing confidences of the housekeeper.

      "Two of us have to sleep outside," she said.

      "Where?" we all asked blankly.

      We went on to the loggia again, and she pointed to a little house almost hidden by olive-trees in a corner of the garden below us.

      "Oh, well, that's all right," said Archie. "It's on the estate. Thomas, you and Simpson won't mind that a bit, will you?"

      "We can't turn Samuel out of his own house," said Myra indignantly.

      "We aren't turning him; he wants to go. But, of course, if you and your young man would like to live there instead—"

      Myra looked at me eagerly.

      "It would be rather fun," she said. "We'd have another little honeymoon all to ourselves."

      "It wouldn't really be a honeymoon," I objected. "We should always be knocking up against trippers in the garden, Archies and Samuels and Thomases and what not. They'd be all over the place."

      Dahlia explained the domestic arrangements. The honeymooners had their little breakfast in their own little house, and then joined the others for the day at about ten.

      "Or eleven," said Thomas.

      "It would be rather lovely," said Myra thoughtfully.

      "Yes," I agreed; "but have you considered that—Come over this way a moment, where Thomas and Simpson can't hear, while I tell you some of the disadvantages."

      I led her into a quiet corner and suggested a few things to her which I hoped would not occur to the other two.

      Item: That if it was raining hard at night, it would be beastly. Item: That if you suddenly found you'd left your pipe behind, it would be rotten. Item: That if, as was probable, there wasn't a proper bathroom in the little house, it would be sickening. Item: That if she had to walk on muddy paths in her evening shoes, it would be—

      At this point Myra suddenly caught the thread of the argument. We went back to the others.

      "We think," said Myra, "it would be perfectly heavenly in the little house; but—" She hesitated.

      "But at the same time," I said, "we think it's up to Simpson and Thomas to be English gentlemen. Samuel, it's your honour."

      There was a moment's silence.

      "Come along," said Thomas to Simpson, "let's go and look at it."

      * * * * *

      After lunch, clean and well-fed and happy, we lay in deck-chairs on the loggia and looked lazily down at the Mediterranean.

      "Thank you, Samuel, for bringing us," said Dahlia gently. "Your friends must be very fond of you to have lent you this lovely place."

      "Not fonder than we are," said Myra, smiling at him.

IV.

       Table of Contents

      BEFORE LUNCH

      I found Myra in the hammock at the end of the loggia.

      "Hallo," I said.

      "Hallo." She looked up from her book and waved her hand. "Mentone on the left, Monte Carlo on the right," she said, and returned to her book again. Simpson had mentioned the situation so many times that it had become a catch-phrase with us.

      "Fancy reading on a lovely morning like this," I complained.

      "But that's why. It's a very gloomy play by Ibsen, and whenever it's simply more than I can bear, I look up and see Mentone on the left, Monte Carlo on the right—I mean, I see all the loveliness round me, and then I know the world isn't so bad after all." She put her book down. "Are you alone?"

      I gripped her wrist suddenly and put the paper-knife to her throat.

      "We are alone," I hissed—or whatever you do to a sentence without any "s's" in it to make it dramatic. "Your friends cannot save you now. Prepare to—er—come a walk up the hill with me."

      "Help! Help!" Whispered Myra. She hesitated a moment; then swung herself out of the hammock and went in for her hat.

      We climbed up a steep path which led to the rock-village above us. Simpson had told us that we must see the village; still more earnestly he had begged us to see Corsica. The view of Corsica was to be obtained from a point some miles up—too far to go before lunch.

      "However, we can always say we saw it," I reassured Myra. "From this distance you can't be certain of recognizing an island you don't know. Any small cloud on the horizon will do."

      "I know it on the map."

      "Yes, but it looks quite different in real life. The great thing is to be able to assure Simpson at lunch that the Corsican question is now closed. When we're a little higher up, I shall say, 'Surely that's Corsica?' and you'll say, 'Not Corsica?' as though you'd rather expected the Isle of Wight; and then it'll be all over. Hallo!"

      We had just passed the narrow archway leading into the courtyard of the village and were following the path up the hill. But in that moment of passing we had been observed. Behind us a dozen village children now trailed eagerly.

      "Oh, the dears!" cried Myra.

      "But I think we made a mistake to bring them," I said severely. "No one is fonder of our—one, two, three … I make it eleven—our eleven children than I am, but there are times when Father and Mother want to be alone."

      "I'm sorry, dear. I thought you'd be so proud to have them all with you."

      "I am proud of them. To reflect that all the—one, two … I make it thirteen—all these thirteen are ours, is very inspiring. But I don't like people to think that we cannot afford our youngest, our little Philomene, shoes and stockings. And Giuseppe should have washed his face since last Friday. These are small matters, but they are very trying to a father."

      "Have you any coppers?" asked Myra suddenly. "You forget their pocket-money last СКАЧАТЬ