The Complete Short Stories (67 page)

“My dear Betty, don't be absurd,” protested Milly; “I've got some people lunching with me at the Carlton tomorrow, and I'm leaving Town the day afterwards.”

“What time is your lunch tomorrow?” asked Lady Drakmanton reflectively.

“Two o'clock,” said Milly.

“Good,” said her sister; “the Smithly-Dubbs shall lunch with me tomorrow. It shall be rather an amusing lunch-party. At least, I shall be amused.”

The last two remarks she made to herself. Other people did not always appreciate her ideas of humour. Sir James never did.

The next day Lady Drakmanton made some marked variations in her usual toilet effects. She dressed her hair in an unaccustomed manner, and put on a hat that added to the transformation of her appearance. When she had made one or two minor alterations she was sufficiently unlike her usual smart self to produce some hesitation in the greeting which the Misses Smithly-Dubb bestowed on her in the club lobby. She responded, however, with a readiness which set their doubts at rest.

“What is the Carlton like for lunching in?” she asked breezily.

The restaurant received an enthusiastic recommendation from the three sisters.

“Let's go and lunch there, shall we?” she suggested, and in a few minutes' time the Smithly-Dubb mind was contemplating at close quarters a happy vista of baked meats and approved vintage.

“Are you going to start with caviare? I am,” confided Lady Drakmanton, and the Smithly-Dubbs started with caviare. The subsequent dishes were chosen in the same ambitious spirit, and by the time they had arrived at the wild duck course it was beginning to be a rather expensive lunch.

The conversation hardly kept pace with the brilliancy of the menu. Repeated references on the part of the guests to the local political conditions and prospects in Sir James's constituency were met with vague “ahs” and “indeeds” from Lady Drakmanton, who might have been expected to be specially interested.

“I think when the Insurance Act is a little better understood it will lose some of its present unpopularity,” hazarded Cecilia Smithly-Dubb.

“Will it? I dare say. I'm afraid politics don't interest me very much,” said Lady Drakmanton.

The three Miss Smithly-Dubbs put down their cups of Turkish coffee and stared. Then they broke into protesting giggles.

“Of course, you're joking,” they said.

“Not me,” was the disconcerting answer; “I can't make head or tail of these bothering old politics. Never could, and never want to. I've quite enough to do to manage my own affairs, and that's a fact.”

“But,” exclaimed Amanda Smithly-Dubb, with a squeal of bewilderment breaking into her voice, “I was told you spoke so informingly about the Insurance Act at one of our social evenings.”

It was Lady Drakmanton who stared now. “Do you know,” she
said, with a scared look around her, “rather a dreadful thing is happening. I'm suffering from a complete loss of memory. I can't even think who I am. I remember meeting you somewhere, and I remember you asking me to come and lunch with you here, and that I accepted your kind invitation. Beyond that my mind is a positive blank.”

The scared look was transferred with intensified poignancy to the faces of her companions.

“
You
asked us to lunch,” they exclaimed hurriedly. That seemed a more immediately important point to clear up than the question of identity.

“Oh, no,” said the vanishing hostess,“
that
I do remember about. You insisted on my coming here because the feeding was so good, and I must say it comes up to all you said about it. A very nice lunch it's been. What I'm worrying about is, who on earth am I? I haven't the faintest notion.”

“You are Lady Drakmanton,” exclaimed the three sisters in chorus.

“Now, don't make fun of me,” she replied crossly. “I happen to know her quite well by sight, and she isn't a bit like me. And it's an odd thing you should have mentioned her, for it so happens she's just come into the room. That lady in black with the yellow plume in her hat, there over by the door.”

The Smithly-Dubbs looked in the indicated direction, and the uneasiness in their eyes deepened into horror. In outward appearance the lady who had just entered the room certainly came rather nearer to their recollection of their Member's wife than the individual who was sitting at table with them.

“Who
are
you, then, if that is Lady Drakmanton?” they asked in panic-stricken bewilderment.

“That is just what I don't know,” was the answer; “and you don't seem to know much better than I do.”

“You came up to us in the club—”

“In what club?”

“The New Didactic, in Calais Street.”

“The New Didactic!” exclaimed Lady Drakmanton with an air of returning illumination; “thank you so much. Of course, I remember now who I am. I'm Ellen Niggle, of the Ladies' Brass-polishing Guild. The Club employs me to come now and then and see to the polishing of the brass fittings. That's how I came to know Lady
Drakmanton by sight; she's very often in the Club. And you are the ladies who so kindly asked me out to lunch. Funny how it should all have slipped my memory, all of a sudden. The unaccustomed good food and wine must have been too much for me; for the moment I really couldn't call to mind who I was. Good gracious,” she broke off suddenly, “it's ten past two; I should be at a polishing job in Whitehall. I must scuttle off like a giddy rabbit. Thanking you ever so.”

She left the room with a scuttle sufficiently suggestive of the animal she had mentioned, but the giddiness was all on the side of her involuntary hostesses. The restaurant seemed to be spinning round them, and the bill when it appeared did nothing to restore their composure. They were as nearly in tears as it is permissible to be during the luncheon hour in a really good restaurant. Financially speaking, they were well able to afford the luxury of an elaborate lunch, but their ideas on the subject of entertaining differed very sharply, according to the circumstances of whether they were dispensing or receiving hospitality. To have fed themselves liberally at their own expense was, perhaps, an extravagance to be deplored, but, at any rate, they had had something for their money; to have drawn an unknown and socially unremunerative Ellen Niggle into the net of their hospitality was a catastrophe that they could not contemplate with any degree of calmness.

The Smithly-Dubbs never quite recovered from their unnerving experience. They have given up politics and taken to doing good.

“S
TARLING
C
HATTER
and Oakhill have both dropped back in the betting,” said Bertie van Tahn, throwing the morning paper across the breakfast table.

“That leaves Nursery Tea practically favourite,” said Odo Finsberry.

“Nursery Tea and Pipeclay are at the top of the betting at present,” said Bertie, “but that French horse, Le Five O'Clock, seems to be fancied as much as anything. Then there is Whitebait, and the Polish horse with a name like some one trying to stifle a sneeze in church; they both seem to have a lot of support.”

“It's the most open Derby there's been for years,” said Odo.

“It's simply no good trying to pick the winner on form,” said Bertie; “one must just trust to luck and inspiration.”

“The question is whether to trust to one's own inspiration, or somebody else's.
Sporting Swank
gives Count Palatine to win, and Le Five O'Clock for a place.”

“Count Palatine—that adds another to our list of perplexities. Good morning, Sir Lulworth; have you a fancy for the Derby by any chance?”

“I don't usually take much interest in turf matters,” said Sir Lulworth, who had just made his appearance, “but I always like to have a bet on the Guineas and the Derby. This year, I confess, it's rather difficult to pick out anything that seems markedly better than anything else. What do you think of Snow Bunting?”

“Snow Bunting?” said Odo, with a groan, “there's another of them. Surely, Snow Bunting has no earthly chance?”

“My housekeeper's nephew, who is a shoeing-smith in the mounted section of the Church Lads' Brigade, and an authority on horseflesh, expects him to be among the first three.”

“The nephews of housekeepers are invariably optimists,” said Bertie; “it's a kind of natural reaction against the professional pessimism of their aunts.”

“We don't seem to get much further in our search for the probable winner,” said Mrs. de Claux; “the more I listen to you experts the more hopelessly befogged I get.”

“It's all very well to blame us,” said Bertie to his hostess; “
you
haven't produced anything in the way of an inspiration.”

“My inspiration consisted in asking you down for Derby week,” retorted Mrs. de Claux; “I thought you and Odo between you might throw some light on
the
question of the moment.”

Further recriminations were cut short by the arrival of Lola Pevensey, who floated into the room with an air of gracious apology.

“So sorry to be so late,” she observed, making a rapid tour of inspection of the breakfast dishes.

“Did you have a good night?” asked her hostess with perfunctory solicitude.

“Quite, thank you,” said Lola; “I dreamt a most remarkable dream.”

A flutter, indicative of general boredom, went round the table.
Other people's dreams are about as universally interesting as accounts of other people's gardens, or chickens, or children.

“I dreamt about the winner of the Derby,” said Lola.

A swift reaction of attentive interest set in.

“Do tell us what you dreamt,” came in a chorus.

“The really remarkable thing about it is that I've dreamt it two nights running,” said Lola, finally deciding between the allurements of sausages and kedgeree; “that is why I thought it worth mentioning. You know, when I dream things two or three nights in succession, it always means something; I have special powers in that way. For instance, I once dreamed three times that a winged lion was flying through the sky and one of his wings dropped off, and he came to the ground with a crash; just afterwards the Campanile at Venice fell down. The winged lion is the symbol of Venice, you know,” she added for the enlightenment of those who might not be versed in Italian heraldry. “Then,” she continued, “just before the murder of the King and Queen of Servia I had a vivid dream of two crowned figures walking into a slaughter-house by the banks of a big river, which I took to be the Danube; and only the other day—”

“Do tell us what you've dreamt about the Derby,” interrupted Odo impatiently.

“Well, I saw the finish of the race as clearly as anything; and one horse won easily, almost in a canter, and everybody cried out ‘Bread and Butter wins! Good old Bread and Butter.' I heard the name distinctly, and I've had the same dream two nights running.”

“Bread and Butter,” said Mrs. de Claux, “now, whatever horse can that point to? Why—of course; Nursery Tea!”

She looked round with the triumphant smile of a successful unraveller of mystery.

“How about Le Five O'Clock?” interposed Sir Lulworth.

“It would fit either of them equally well,” said Odo; “can you remember any details about the jockey's colours? That might help us.”

“I seem to remember a glimpse of lemon sleeves or cap, but I can't be sure,” said Lola, after due reflection.

“There isn't a lemon jacket or cap in the race,” said Bertie, referring to a list of starters and jockeys; “can't you remember anything about the appearance of the horse? If it were a thick-set animal
thick bread and butter would typify Nursery Tea; and if it were thin, of course, it would mean Le Five O'Clock.”

“That seems sound enough,” said Mrs. de Claux; “do think, Lola dear, whether the horse in your dream was thin or stoutly built.”

“I can't remember that it was one or the other,” said Lola; “one wouldn't notice such a detail in the excitement of a finish.”

“But this was a symbolic animal,” said Sir Lulworth; “if it were to typify thick or thin bread and butter, surely it ought to have been either as bulky and tubby as a shire cart-horse, or as thin as a heraldic leopard.”

“I'm afraid you are rather a careless dreamer,” said Bertie resentfully.

“Of course, at the moment of dreaming I thought I was witnessing a real race, not the portent of one,” said Lola; “otherwise I should have particularly noticed all helpful details.”

“The Derby isn't run till tomorrow,” said Mrs. de Claux; “do you think you are likely to have the same dream again tonight? If so, you can fix your attention on the important detail of the animal's appearance.”

“I'm afraid I shan't sleep at all tonight,” said Lola pathetically; “every fifth night I suffer from insomnia, and it's due tonight.”

“It's most provoking,” said Bertie; “of course, we can back both horses, but it would be much more satisfactory to have all our money on the winner. Can't you take a sleeping-draught, or something?”

“Oakleaves, soaked in warm water and put under the bed, are recommended by some,” said Mrs. de Claux.

“A glass of Benedictine, with a drop of eau-de-Cologne—” said Sir Lulworth.

“I have tried every known remedy,” said Lola, with dignity; “I've been a martyr to insomnia for years.”

“But now we are being martyrs to it,” said Odo sulkily; “I particularly want to land a big coup over this race.”

“I don't have insomnia for my own amusement,” snapped Lola.

“Let us hope for the best,” said Mrs. de Claux soothingly; “tonight may prove an exception to the fifth-night rule.”

But when breakfast time came round again Lola reported a blank night as far as visions were concerned.