she had done that. In that meeting in the garden just now she had just
sailed through Mrs Quantock as calmly as a steamer cuts through the
waters of the sea, throwing her off from her penetrating bows like a
spent wave. But baffled though she was for the moment, Georgie had been
aware that Mrs Quantock seethed with revolutionary ideas: she deeply
resented this confiscation of what was certainly her property, though
she was impotent to stop it, and Georgie knew just what she felt. It
was all very well to say that Lucia's schemes were entirely in accord
with the purposes of the Guides. That might be so, but Mrs Quantock
would not cease to think that she had been robbed....

Yet nothing mattered if all the class found themselves getting young
and active and loving and excellent under this tuition. It was that
notion which had taken such entire command of them all, and for his
part Georgie did not really care who owned the Guru, so to speak, if
only he got the benefit of his teachings. For social purposes Lucia had
annexed him, and doubtless with him in the house she could get little
instructions and hints that would not count as a lesson, but after all,
Georgie had still got Olga Bracely to himself, for he had not breathed
a word of her advent to Lucia. He felt rather like one who, when
revolutionary ideas are in the air, had concealed a revolver in his
pocket. He did not formulate to himself precisely what he was going to
do with it, but it gave him a sense of power to know it was there.

The train came in, but he looked in vain for his sisters. They had
distinctly said they were arriving by it, but in a couple of minutes it
was perfectly clear that they had done nothing of the kind, for the
only person who got out was Mrs Weston's cook, who as all the world
knew went into Brinton every Wednesday to buy fish. At the rear of the
train, however, was an immense quantity of luggage being taken out,