to a whale. As I straightened my back--

"Well done, Boy," said Jill. "There's a letter for you from Berry. Do
see what he says. Then I'll read you Daphne's."

"Read hers first," said I. "Strange as it may seem, I entered this room
to eat."

"Right oh!" And in her fresh little voice my cousin began to read.

_JILL DARLING,_

_The sooner you all come up the better. Everything's ready and Berry's
more than I can manage alone. His shoulder was aching last night, but
when I wanted to rub him he said he was a kind of Aladdin's lamp, and
wouldn't be responsible if I did. "Supposing a genie appeared and formed
fours, or the slop-pail rotted aside, disclosing a flight of steps."
Result, to-day in Bond Street he turned suddenly to look at a passing
car, and had a seizure. He just gave a yell as if he'd been shot, and
then stood stock still with his head all on one side. Of course I was
horrified, but he said he was quite all right, and explained that it was
muscular rheumatism. I stopped a taxi and tried to make him get in, for
people were beginning to look. Do you think he would? Not a bit of it.
Stood there and said it was a judgment, and that he must stay where he
was till it had passed. "That may not be for years. They'll put railings
round me after a bit, and people will meet at me instead of the Tube.
You will be responsible for my meals, some of which you will cook on the
spot. I'll have a light lunch to-day about 1300 hours." One or two
people stopped, and I got into a taxi just as a man asked him if he was
ill. "Brother," said the fool, "my blood tests are more than