coffee-cup against its saucer. Then--

"Since you ask me," said Berry, "my horoscope is of peculiar interest."

"What's a horoscope?" said Jill.

"A cross between a birth certificate and a conduct sheet," said I,
nodding at Berry. "His is a wonder. You can get a copy of it for three
and sixpence at Scotland Yard."

"I was born," said my brother-in-law, "when Uranus was in conjunction,
Saturn in opposition, and the Conservatives in power. Venus was all
gibbous, the Zodiac was in its zenith, and the zenith was in Charles's
Wain, commonly called The Cart. My sign was Oleaqua--The Man with the
Watering Pot. When I add that a thunderstorm was raging, and that my
father had bet five pounds I should be a girl, and had decided to call
me 'Hosannah,' you will appreciate that it is no ordinary being who is
addressing you. A singularly beautiful infant, it was at once obvious
that I was born to rule. Several people said it was inevitable, among
them an organ-grinder, who was ordered out of the grounds, to which
during the excitement he had gained access. He didn't put it that way,
but he explained at the police court that that was what he had meant."

"To whose good offices," said Jonah, "do you ascribe your pretty ways?"

"Uranus," was the airy reply. "From that deity came also meekness, an
unshakable belief in human nature, and the fidgets."

"You ought to have been called after him," said Adèle.