short practice at the bass part of Beethoven's fifth symphony,
ingeniously arranged for two performers on the piano, he looked with
sincere satisfaction at his rosy face in the Cromwellian mirror, and
his shoes felt quite comfortable again, and his nails shone like pink
stars, as his hands dashed wildly about the piano in the quicker
passages. But all the time the thought of the Guru next door, under
whose tuition he might be able to regain his youth without recourse to
those expensive subterfuges (for the price of the undetectable
_toupet_ astonished him) rang in his head with a melody more
haunting than Beethoven's. What he would have liked best of all would
have been to have the Guru all to himself, so that he should remain
perpetually young, while all the rest of Riseholme, including Hermy and
Ursy, grew old. Then, indeed, he would be king of the place, instead of
serving the interests of its queen.

He rose with a little sigh, and after adjusting the strip of flannel
over the keys, shut his piano and busied himself for a little with a
soft duster over his cabinet of bibelots which not even Foljambe was
allowed to touch. It was generally understood that he had inherited
them, though the inheritance had chiefly passed to him through the
medium of curiosity shops, and there were several pieces of
considerable value among them. There were a gold Louis XVI snuff box, a
miniature by Karl Huth, a silver toy porringer of the time of Queen
Anne, a piece of Bow china, an enamelled cigarette case by Faberge. But
tonight his handling of them was not so dainty and delicate as usual,
and he actually dropped the porringer on the floor as he was dusting
it, for his mind still occupied itself with the Guru and the practices
that led to permanent youth. How quick Lucia had been to snap him up
for her garden-party. Yet perhaps she would not get him, for he might
say he was not sent. But surely he would be sent to Georgie, whom he