[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

him to be undeniably the best doctor in the country, and a very clever fellow
into the bargain.
"Leer," he said solemnly, when Dame Jessamine had left the room, "there are
very queer things happening at that Academy . . .
very queer things."
"Indeed?" said Endymion Leer, in a tone of surprise. "What sort of things?"
Master Ambrose gave a short laugh: "Not the sort of things, if my suspicions
are correct, that one cares to talk about  even between men. But I can tell
you, Leer, though I'm not what one could call a fanciful man, I believe if I'd
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
stayed much longer in that house I should have gone off my head, the whole
place stinks with . . . well, with pernicious nonsense, and I actually found
myself, I, Ambrose Honeysuckle, seeing things  ridiculous things."
Endymion Leer looked interested.
"What sort of things, Master Ambrose?" he asked.
"Oh, it's not worth repeating  except in so far as it shows that the fancies
of silly overwrought women can sometimes be infectious. I actually imagined
that I saw the Senate room portrait of Duke Aubrey reflected on the window.
And if take to fancying things  well, there must be something very fishy in
I
the offing."
Endymion Leer's expression was inscrutable.
"Optical delusions have been known before, Master Ambrose," he said calmly.
"Even the eyes of
Senators may sometimes play them tricks. Optical delusions, legal fictions 
and so the world wags on."
Master Ambrose grunted. He loathed the fellow's offensive way of putting
things.
But he was sore at heart and terribly anxious, and he felt the need of having
his fears either confirmed or dispelled, so, ignoring the sneer, he said with
a weary sigh: "However, that's a mere trifle. I have grave reasons for fearing
that my daughter has . . . has . . . well, not to put too fine a point on
things, I'm afraid that my daughter has eaten fairy fruit.
"
Endymion Leer flung up his hands in horror, and then he laughed incredulously.
"Impossible, my dear sir, impossible! Your good lady told me you were sadly
anxious about her, but let me assure you such an idea is mere morbidness on
your part. The thing's impossible."
"Is it?" said Master Ambrose grimly; and producing the slipper from his pocket
he held it out, saying, "What do you say to that? I found it in Miss
Crabapple's parlour. I'm not much of a botanist, but I've never seen purple
strawberries in Dorimare . . . Toasted cheese! What's taken the man?"
For Endymion Leer had turned livid, and was staring at the design on the shoe
with eyes as full of horror as if it had been some hideous goblin.
Master Ambrose interpreted this as corroboration of his own theory.
He gave a sort of groan: "Not so impossible after all, eh?" he said gloomily.
"Yes, that
I very much fear is the sort of stuff my poor little girl has been given to
eat."
Then his eyes flashed, and clenching his fist he cried, "But it's not her I
blame. Before I'm many days older I'll smoke out that nest of wasps! I'll hang
that simpering old woman from her own doorpost. By the Golden Apples of the
West I'll . . ."
Endymion Leer had by this time, at any rate externally, recovered his
equanimity.
"Are you referring to Miss Primrose Crabapple?" he asked in his usual voice.
"Yes, Miss Primrose Crabapple!
" boomed Master Ambrose, "nonsensical, foul-minded, obscene old
. . ."
"Yes, yes," interrupted Endymion Leer with good-humoured impatience, "I
daresay she's all of that and a great deal more, but, all the same, I don't
believe her capable of having given your daughter what you think she has. I
admit, when you first showed me that slipper I was frightened. Unlike you, I
am a bit of a botanist, and I certainly have never seen a berry like that in
Dorimare. But after all that does not prove that it grows . . . across the
hills. There's many a curious fruit to be found in the Cinnamon Isles, or in
the oases of the Amber Desert . . . why, your own ships, Master Ambrose,
sometimes bring such fruit. The ladies of Lud have no lack of exotic fruit and
Page 48
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
flowers to copy in their embroidery. No, no, you're a bit unhinged this
evening, Master Ambrose, else you would not allow so much as the shadow of
foul suspicions like these to cross your mind."
Master Ambrose groaned.
And then he said a little stiffly, "I am not given, Dr. Leer, to harbouring
foul suspicions without cause.
But a great deal of mischief is sometimes done by not facing facts. How is one
to explain my daughter's running away, due west, like one possessed? Besides,
Prunella Chanticleer as much as told me she had .
. . eaten a certain thing . . . and . . . and . . . I'm old enough to remember
the great drought, so I know the smell, so to speak, of evil, and there is
something very strange going on in that Academy."
"Prunella
Chanticleer
, did you say?" queried Endymion Leer with an emphasis on the last word, and
with a rather odd expression in his eyes.
Master Ambrose looked surprised.
"Yes," he said. "Prunella Chanticleer, her school fellow and intimate friend."
Endymion Leer gave a short laugh.
"The Chanticleers are . . . rather curious people," he said drily, "Are you
aware that Ranulph
Chanticleer has done the very thing you suspect your daughter of having done?"
Master Ambrose gaped at him.
Ranulph had certainly always been an odd and rather disagreeable boy, and
there had been that horrid little incident at the Moongrass cheese
supper-party . . . but that he actually should have eaten fairy fruit!
"Do you mean? Do you mean . . .?" he gasped.
Endymion Leer nodded his head significantly: "One of the worst cases I have
ever known."
"And Nathaniel knows?"
Again Endymion Leer nodded.
A wave of righteous indignation swept over Master Ambrose. The Honeysuckles
were every bit as ancient and honourable a family as the Chanticleers, and yet
here was he, ready to tarnish his escutcheon for ever, ready if need be to
make the town crier trumpet his disgrace from the market-place, to sacrifice
money, position, family pride, everything, for the good of the community.
While the only though of
Nathaniel, and he the Mayor, was to keep his skeleton safely hidden in the
cupboard.
"Master Ambrose," continued Endymion Leer, in a grave impressive voice, "if [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]