The Stratagem and Other Stories

And he discharged a groom for whistling on Sunday. But if these expedients salved his conscience, they did nothing to quell Gertrude's incipient tendency to in- dependence of thought and action. There had been a very unpleasant scene when he threw into the fire a book from Mudie’s (I thought one could have trusted Mudie’s!) called ‘The Stolen Bacillus,’ which he under- stood to be of a grossly immoral tendency. (Nasty filth about free love or something, isn't it?) Theodore Bugg was not a sensitive man; excess of intuitive sympathy had not made his life a hell; but he felt that his domestic relations were strained. Especially since “that Mrs. Grahame” had evinced a liking for Gertrude. Her husband's colonelcy was the gilding of the pill; but the pill was a bitter one, for Mrs. Grahame went motoring and even golfing on Sunday instead of going to Church, and once or twice had taken Gertrude with her, to the scandal of the neighbourhood. Colonel Grahame, too, rather got on Bugg's nerves, in spite of the “honour of his acquaintance.” Such thoughts went dully through his mind as he waited in the garden for his daughter to come in to tea from the “Art Class.” But when she arrived, portfolio in hand, her beauty and the splendour of her long easy swing determined him to be gracious. Under such circumstances conversation is apt to be artificial; but Gertrude was gay and garrulous, and the tea went very pleasantly until her father's eye unluckily fell on the portfolio. “And what has my little fairy been doing lately?” he asked with elephantine lightness. “Oh, sketches mostly, father. This week we're copy- ing from old Greek masterpieces, though. Let me show you, father, dear.” She opened the portfolio and turned over the leaves. “I'm getting on splendidly. Mr., Davis thinks I ought to go to Paris and study properly. Do let me.” How can you think of such a thing, Gertrude? A daughter of mine! Study properly!!! No indeed! A little