days before he had turned a little mad.
She shook herself out of her reverie and found her way downstairs and into the main hall, where Mervyn, on the look-out, directed her to the green boudoir. ‘We are not disturbing the library,’ Mervyn said with a meaningful smirk. ‘Madam.’
‘How very considerate,’ said Troy. He opened the boudoir door for her and she went in.
The Forresters stood in front of the fire with Hilary, who wore a plum-coloured smoking suit and a widish tie. Colonel Forrester was a surprised-looking old man with a pink-and-white complexion and a moustache. But no beard. He wore a hearing-aid.
Mrs Forrester looked, as she had sounded, formidable. She had a blunt face with a mouth like a spring-trap, prominent eyes fortified by pebble-lenses and thin, grey hair lugged back into a bun. Her skirt varied in length from midi to maxi and she clearly wore more than one flannel petticoat. Her top half was covered by woollen garments in varying shades of dull puce. She wore a double chain of what Troy suspected were superb natural pearls and a number of old-fashioned rings in which deposits of soap had accumulated. She carried a string bag containing a piece of anonymous knitting and her handkerchief.
Hilary performed the introductions. Colonel Forrester beamed and gave Troy a little bow. Mrs Forrester sharply nodded.
‘How do you find yourself?’ she said. ‘Cold?’
‘Not at all, thank you.’
‘I ask because you must spend much of your time in overheated studios painting from the Altogether, I said Painting From The Altogether.’
This habit of repetition in fortissimo, Troy discovered, was automatic with Mrs Forrester and was practised for the benefit of her husband, who now gently indicated that he wore his hearing-aid. To this she paid no attention.
‘She’s not painting me in the nude, darling Auntie,’ said Hilary, who was pouring drinks.
‘A pretty spectacle that would be.’
‘I think perhaps you base your theories about painters on Trilby and La Vie de Bohème.’
‘I saw Beerbohm Tree in Trilby,’ Colonel Forrester remembered. ‘He died backwards over a table. It was awfully good.’
There was a tap on the door, followed by the entrance of a man with an anxious face. Not only anxious but most distressingly disfigured, as if by some long-distant and extensive burn. The scars ran down to the mouth and dragged it askew.
‘Hullo, Moult,’ said Mrs Forrester.
‘I beg your pardon, sir, I’m sure,’ said the man to Hilary. ‘It was just to put the Colonel’s mind at ease, sir. It’s quite all right about the beard, sir.’
‘Oh good, Moult. Good. Good. Good,’ said Colonel Forrester.
‘Thank you, sir,’ said the man and withdrew.
‘What is it about your beard, Uncle Flea?’ asked Hilary, to Troy’s immense relief.
‘The beard, old chap. I was afraid it might have been forgotten and then I was afraid it might have been messed up in the packing.’
‘Well, it hasn’t, Fred. I said it hasn’t.’
‘I know, so that’s all right.’
‘Are you going to be Father Christmas, Colonel?’ Troy ventured and he beamed delightedly and looked shy.
‘I knew you’d think so,’ he said. ‘But no, I’m a Druid. What do you make of that, now?’
‘You mean – you belong –?’
‘Not,’ Hilary intervened, ‘to some spurious Ancient Order wearing cotton-wool beards and making fools of themselves every second Tuesday.’
‘Oh, come, old boy,’ his uncle protested. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘Well, perhaps not. But no,’ Hilary continued, addressing himself to Troy, ‘at Halberds, St Nicholas or Santa Claus or whatever you like to call the Teutonic old person, is replaced by an ancient and more authentic figure: the great precursor of the Winter Solstice observances who bequeathed – consciously or not – so much of his lore to his Christian successors. The Druid, in fact.’
‘And the vicar doesn’t mind,’ Colonel Forrester earnestly interjected. ‘I promise you. The vicar doesn’t mind a bit.’
‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ his wife observed with a cryptic snort.
‘He comes to the party even. So, you see, I shall be a Druid. I have been one each year since Hilary came to Halberds. There’s a tree and a kissing-bough you know, and, of course, quantities of mistletoe. All the children come: the children on the place and at The Vale and in the neighbouring districts. It’s a lovely party and I love doing it. Do you like dressing-up?’
He asked this so anxiously, like a character in Alice, that she hadn’t the heart to give anything less than an enthusiastic assent and almost expected him to say cosily that they must dress up together one of these days.
‘Uncle Flea’s a brilliant performer,’ Hilary said, ‘and his beard is the pièce de résistance. He has it made by Wig Creations. It wouldn’t disgrace King Lear. And then the wig itself! So different from the usual repellent falsity. You shall see.’
‘We’ve made some changes,’ said Colonel Forrester excitedly. ‘They’ve re-dressed it. The feller said he thought it was a bit on the long side and might make me look as if I’d opted out. One can’t be too careful.’
Hilary brought the drinks. Two of them were steaming and had slices of lemon in them.
‘Your rum toddies, Aunt Bed,’ he said. ‘Tell me if there’s not enough sugar.’
Mrs Forrester wrapped her handkerchief round her glass and sat down with it. ‘It seems all right,’ she said. ‘Did you put nutmeg in your uncle’s?’
‘No.’
‘Good.’
‘You will think,’ said the colonel to Troy, ‘that rum toddies before dinner are funny things to drink but we make a point of putting them forward after a journey. Usually they are nightcaps.’
‘They smell delicious.’
‘Would you like one?’ Hilary asked her. ‘Instead of a White Lady.’
‘I think I’ll stick to the White Lady.’
‘So shall I. Well, my dears,’ Hilary said generally. ‘We are a small house-party this year. Only Cressida and Uncle Bert to come. They both arrive tomorrow.’
‘Are you still engaged to Cressida?’ asked his aunt.
‘Yes. The arrangement stands. I am in high hopes, Aunt Bed, that you will take more of a fancy to Cressida on second sight.’
‘It’s not second sight. It’s fiftieth sight. Or more.’
‘But you know what I mean. Second sight since we became engaged.’
‘What’s the odds?’ she replied ambiguously.
‘Well, Aunt Bed, I would have thought –’ Hilary broke off and rubbed his nose. ‘Well, anyway, Aunt Bed, considering I met her in your house.’
‘More’s the pity. I warned your uncle. I said I warned you, Fred.’
‘What about, B?’
‘Your gel! The Tottenham gel. Cressida.’
‘She’s not mine, B. You put things so oddly, my dear.’
‘Well, anyway,’ Hilary said. ‘I hope you change your mind, Auntie.’
‘One