ARABIAN NIGHTS FOR T U R G I S 355

made some sort of noise In his throat, and it was enough
to stop her staring at him and to set her moving towards
the door, chuckling just as if she was a witch. 'The
young man ees afraid of me. He ees in loff. Geef 'im a
plom, dee-air/'

When Lena came back, after closing the outer door
behind the old woman, a new feeling, of friendly ease
and lightness, immediately descended upon them both,
They were young together. They laughed at the old
woman, w7hom Lena imitated with some skill.

"She's our landlady," she explained. "Not a bad old
thing, really—she's always giving me things—but quite
cracked, of course. And the daughter she talks about,
the one who's in 'treble'—she's some sort of a countess
—seems to be completely dippy. Everybody who ever
comes downstairs is a bit mad, and they're the only
people I've spoken to these last few days, so you can tell
the sort of time I've had. It's just my damnable luck!
—when my father's away and I could do what I liked—
three friends, all three, take it into their heads to go
away, too, this week. I could have screamed, I've been
so bored." She lounged over to the window and looked
out. "Looks very thick now. Another fog coming, I sup-
pose. That's the wrorst of London, all these foul fogs.
What shall we do now? You haven't to go home or any-
thing, have you?"

Turgis, looking his devotion, said at once that he
hadn't to'go home or anywhere.

"Let's go to the movies. We can go to the place near
here. It's not bad. Just wait, I shan't be long. Or, look
here, you could take these tea things back into the
kitchen."

He had taken them all in and had seriously begun to