knew, the moment he set eyes on him to have a clean white soul....

The clock struck eleven, and, as usual on warm nights Georgie opened
the glass door into his garden and drew in a breath of the night air.
There was a slip of moon in the sky which he most punctiliously
saluted, wondering (though he did not seriously believe in its
superstition) how Lucia could be so foolhardy as to cut the new moon.
She had seen it yesterday, she told him, in London, and had taken no
notice whatever of it.... The heavens were quickly peppered with pretty
stars, which Georgie after his busy interesting day enjoyed looking at,
though if he had had the arrangement of them, he would certainly have
put them into more definite patterns. Among them was a very red planet,
and Georgie with recollections of his classical education, easily
remembered that Mars, the God of War, was symbolized in the heavens by
a red star. Could that mean anything to peaceful Riseholme? Was
internal warfare, were revolutionary movements possible in so serene a
realm?




Chapter FOUR


Pink irascible Robert, prone to throw his food about his plate, if it
did not commend itself to him, felt in an extremely good natured mood
that same night after dinner, for the Guru had again made a visit to
the kitchen with the result that instead of a slab of pale dead codfish
being put before him after he had eaten some tepid soup, there appeared
a delicious little fish-curry. The Guru had behaved with great tact; he