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"She's too darn wonderful! She can't keep this up!" Georgie and Joe came to Mrs. Lancaster's house for an afternoon visit on Thanksgiving Day, arriving in mid-afternoon with the two babies, and taking Myra and Helen home again before the day grew too cold.
Then she looked up a photograph from Smibert's picture of Dean Berkeley and his family to show them, and by that time the girls had all grown interested; and when Marian said that she, too, wanted to go to see Whitehall, Georgie and Gertrude begged to be included also, and Mrs. Gray promised to take them all.
Of course when they came back they had a lot of lingo about the art atmosphere and all that; home was a misfit and impossible, so they went to live in a swell studio with two maids and a Jap butler in costume, and do really give bang-up musicals, with paid talent of course. I went to one. "That left Georgie, the odd one, who was the eldest, with poor Mrs. Townley.
"Maybe I can't climb a pole so good, but who can holler louder'n this? Listen to ME-E-E!" "Shut up!" cried Penrod, irritated. "Go to heaven; go to hell!" "Oo-o-oh!" exclaimed Georgie Bassett, profoundly shocked. Sam and Maurice, awed by Penrod's daring, ceased from turmoil, staring wide-eyed. "You cursed and swore!" said Georgie. "I did not!" cried Penrod, hotly. "That isn't swearing."
"I'm very sorry," said Georgie. "You needn't be, for now I'll tell you his real reason. He thought that if he lunched with you he would have to come on to the garden party, and that he was absolutely determined not to do. You were the thin edge of the wedge, in fact. My dear, what a delicious house. All panelled, with that lovely garden behind. And croquet may we play croquet after lunch?
Gone was the Louis XVI snuff-box, gone was the miniature of Karl Huth, gone the piece of Bow China, and gone the Faberge cigarette case. Only the Queen Anne toy-porringer was there, and in the absence of the others, it looked to him, as no doubt it had looked to the burglar, indescribably insignificant. Georgie gave a little low wailing cry, but did not tear his hair for obvious reasons.
But there are thousands of people doing just that thing, Georgie, and being very happy over it. And it wouldn't be dreadful for Flora and Oscar because they would be right where they belong, and the potato salad and the bologna and the little room where Oscar could sit with his coat off would be much more to their liking than their present pomp and elegance. You and I are different.
Then Miss Spence said, in a favourable manner: "Georgie Bassett, you may read your letter next." The neat Georgie rose, nothing loath, and began: "'Dear Teacher " There was a slight titter, which Miss Spence suppressed. Georgie was not at all discomfited. "'My mother says," he continued, reading his manuscript, "'we should treat our teacher as a friend, and so I will write YOU a letter."
Lucia rang up house after house, only to find that its inhabitants were already engaged. She had got Olga and Georgie, and could begin the good work of education and the crushing of rivalry, not by force but by pure and refined example, but Mrs Quantock had got everybody else. In the old days this could never have happened for everything devolved round one central body.
What that nail precisely was no one knew, because she had not explained why both Olga Bracely and Georgie were absentees. But now came the climax, bang on the top of the nail, a shrewd straight stroke.
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