again; but anyhow, there was to have been a bathe in the river, and
lunch, and a little exploration in the dinghy, and a lesson in the
Morse code from Simpson, and tea in the woods with a real fire, and
in the cool of the evening a ripping run home before the wind. But
now the only thing that seemed certain was the cool of the evening.

"We'll light a fire and do something indoors," said Dahlia.

"This is an extraordinary house," said Archie. "There isn't a single
book in it, except a lot of Strand Magazines for 1907. That must
have been a very wet year."

"We can play games, dear."

"True, darling. Let's do a charade."

"The last time I played charades," I said, "I was Horatius, the
front part of Elizabeth's favourite palfrey, the arrow which shot
Rufus, Jonah, the two little Princes in the Tower, and Mrs
Pankhurst."

"Which was your favourite part?" asked Myra.

"The front part of the palfrey. But I was very good as the two
little Princes."

"It's no good doing charades, if there's nobody to do them to."

"Thomas is coming to-morrow," said Myra. "We could tell him all
about it."