And he went in and shut the door of hisprivate room
behind him. At that word, that magic word, she revived.
Shots rang out inthe wood under the
window.
Reginald Thorburn, for example,fitted the part of
the Squire to perfection. And who, said Miss Antonia, looking at the flakes on the
carpet,whos to pay? They worried him, they mauled him with their greatyellow teeth.
Rather a small hare; silver grey; with big bright eyes? Miss Antonia and Miss
Rashleigh rose to their feet.
It looked as if it had never twitched at
all.
Well, when he was eatingtoast he looked like a
rabbit.
But did she, all the same, as she opened
thecarriage door and stepped out, murmur Chk.
She laid her plump padded finger across her
lips.
She felt that her iciclewas being turned to water.
And he waited there, flattened against the wall. Sheheld it high, as if she toasted
the mermaid carved in plaster on thefireplace.
Then the butler drew thedecanter towards Miss
Antonia, and paused for a moment with his headbent. Now and then a twig
snapped;leaves came whirling.
There were the black rabbits and the red; there
were theenemy rabbits and the friendly. Not when people all day long wanted your
help,fairly clamoured for help.
Deftly the footman whippedit from her, and old Miss
Rashleigh raised her knife. And she held out her handwhich came through the slit of
her white glove. Milly Masters in the still room, began old Miss Rashleigh. She drew
her knife down the other side of the breast. At lunch time, seated on a clump of
heather beside the lake, Lettuce,rabbit?
With one lash he curled to the ground the vase
ofchrysanthemums. Again the guns barked;the smoke balls formed; loosened, dispersed.
He was King Lappin; shewas Queen Lapinova. Then the Squire, with the hang-dog
stained face, in the shabby gaiters,cursed and raised his gun. At last she reached
the Natural History Museum; sheused to like it when she was a child.
Then again up shot the rockets, thereddish purple
pheasants. Perhaps she never wouldget used to the fact that she was
Mrs.
Rosalind had still to get usedto the fact that she
was Mrs. They all stood with their glasses raised; they alldrank; then it was over.
King Lappin, she added,dangling her little front paws in the firelight.
At lunch time, seated on a clump of heather beside
the lake, Lettuce,rabbit? And she held out her handwhich came through the slit of
her white glove. Oliver stretched out and took one of the pearls between finger
andthumb.
All safe, shining, cool, yetburning, eternally,
with their own compressed light.