languished lamentably for the Guru to return, and save his stomach. She
had left him glowering over a little mud and water called coffee.
Robert, at any rate, would welcome the return of the Guru.

She waddled across the lawn to where this harmonious party was sitting,
and at that moment Lucia began to feel vindictive. The calm of victory
which had permeated her when she brought the Guru in to lunch, without
any bother at all, was troubled and broken up, and darling Daisy's
note, containing the outrageous falsity that the Guru would not
certainly accept an invitation which had never been permitted to reach
him at all, assumed a more sinister aspect. Clearly now Daisy had
intended to keep him to herself, a fact that she already suspected and
had made a hostile invasion.

"Guru, dear, you naughty thing," said Mrs Quantock playfully, after the
usual salutations had passed, "why did you not tell your Chela you
would not be home for tiffin?"

The Guru had unwound his legs, and stood up.

"But see, beloved lady," he said, "how pleasant we all are! Take not
too much thought, when it is only white souls who are together."

Mrs Quantock patted his shoulder.

"It is all good and kind Om," she said. "I send out my message of love.
There!"

It was necessary to descend from these high altitudes, and Lucia
proceeded to do so, as in a parachute that dropped swiftly at first,