``No ... yes. I mean I know very little about it.''
``It has an uncanny fascination for me. You must go there, Teddy. I know you'd like it. I've been saying the same to Brenda.''
``I expect you'd like to see your room,'' said Tony. ``They'll bring tea soon.''
``No, I'll stay here. I like just to curl up like a cat in front of the fire, and if you're nice to me I'll purr, and if you're cruel I shall pretend not to notice--just like a cat ... Shall I purr, Teddy?''
``Er... yes ... do, please, if that's what you like doing.''
``Englishmen are so gentle and considerate. It's wonderful to be back among them ... mine own people. Sometimes when I look back at my life, especially at times like this among lovely old English things and kind people, I think the whole thing must be a frightful nightmare ... then I remember my scars ...''
``Brenda tells me you've taken one of the flats in the same house as hers. They must be very convenient.''
``How English you are, Teddy--so shy of talking about personal things, intimate things ... I like you for that, you know. I love everything that's solid and homely and good after ... after all I've been through.''
``You're not studying economics too, are you, like Brenda?''
``No; is Brenda? She never told me. What a wonderful person she is. When does she find the time?''
``Ah, here comes tea at last,'' said Tony. ``I hope you allow yourself to eat muffins. So many of our guests nowadays are on a diet. I think muffins one of the few things that make the English winter endurable.''
``Muffins stand for so much,'' said Jenny.
She ate heartily; often she ran her tongue over her lips, collecting crumbs that had become embedded there and melted butter from the muffin. One drop of butter fell on her chin and glittered there unobserved except by Tony. It was a relief to him when John Andrew was brought in. ``Come and be introduced to Princess Abdul Akbar.''
John Andrew had never before seen a Princess; he gazed at her fascinated.
``Aren't you going to give me a kiss?''
He walked over to her and she kissed him on the mouth.
``Oh,'' he said, recoiling and rubbing away the taste of the lipstick; and then ``What a beautiful smell.''
``It's my last link with the East,'' she said.
``You've got butter on your chin.''
She reached for her bag, laughing. ``Why so I have. Teddy, you might have told me.''
``Why do you call daddy, Teddy?''
``Because I hope we are going to be great friends.''
``What a. funny reason.''
John stayed with them for an hour and all the time watched her fascinated. ``Have you got a crown?'' he asked. ``How did you learn to speak English? What is that big ring made of? Did it cost much? Why are your nails that colour? Can you ride?''
She answered all his questions, sometimes enigmatically with an eye on Tony. She took out a little heavily scented handkerchief and showed John the monogram. ``That is my only crown ... now,'' she said. She told him about the horses she used to have--glossy black, with arched necks; foam round their silver bits; plumes tossing on their foreheads; silver studs on the harness, crimson saddle cloths, ``On the Moulay's birthday--``
``What's the Moulay?''
``A beautiful and a very bad man,'' she said gravely, ``and on his birthday all his horsemen used to assemble round a great square, with all their finest clothes and trappings and jewels, with long swords in their hands. The Moulay used to sit on a throne under a great crimson canopy.''
``What's a canopy?''
``Like a tent,'' she said more sharply, and then resuming her soft voice, ``and all the horsemen used to gallop across the plain, in a great cloud of dust, waving their swords, straight towards the Moulay. And everyone used to hold their breath, thinking the horsemen were bound to ride right on top of the Moulay, but when they were a few feet away, as near as I am to you, galloping at full speed, they used to rein their horses back, up on to their hind legs and salute--``
``Oh but they shouldn't,'' said John. ``It's very bad horsemanship indeed. Ben says so.''
``They're the most wonderful horsemen in the world. Everyone knows that.''
``Oh no, they can't be, if they do that. It's one of the worst things. Were they natives?''
``Yes, of course.''
``Ben says natives aren't humans at all really.''
``Ah but he's thinking of Negroes I expect. These are pure Semitic type.''
``What's that?''
``The same as Jews.''
``Ben says Jews are worse than natives.''
``Oh dear, what a very severe boy you are. I was like that once. Life teaches one to be tolerant.''
``It hasn't taught Ben,'' said John. ``When's mummy coming? I thought she'd be here, otherwise I wouldn't have stopped painting my picture.''
But when nanny came to fetch him, John, without invitation, went over and kissed Jenny goodnight. ``Goodnight, Johnny-boy,'' she said.
``What did you call me?''
``Johnny-boy.''
``You are funny with names.''
Upstairs, meditatively splashing his spoon in the bread and milk, he said, ``Nanny, I do think that Princess is beautiful, don't you?''
Nanny sniffed. ``It would be a dull world if we all thought alike,'' she said.
``She's more beautiful than Miss Tendril, even. I think she's the most beautiful lady I've ever seen ... D'you think she'd like to watch me have my bath?''
Downstairs, Jenny said, ``What a heavenly child ... I love children. That has been my great tragedy. It was when he found I couldn't have children that the Moulay first showed the Other Side of his Nature. It wasn't my fault ... you see my womb is out of place ... I don't know why I'm telling you all this, but I feel you'll understand. It's such a waste of time, isn't it, when one knows one is going to like someone and one goes on pretending ... I know at once if someone is going to be a real friend ...''
Polly and Brenda arrived just before seven. Brenda went straight up to the nursery. ``Oh, mummy,'' said John. ``There's such a beautiful lady downstairs. Do ask her to come and say goodnight. Nanny doesn't think she'd want to.
``Did daddy seem to like her?''
``He didn't talk much ... She doesn't know anything about horses or natives but she is beautiful. Please tell her to come up.''
Brenda went downstairs and found Jenny with Polly and Tony in the smoking room. ``You've made a wild success with John Andrew. He won't go to sleep until he's seen you again.''
They went up together, and Jenny said, ``They're both such dears.''
``Did you and Tony get on? I was so sorry not to be here when you arrived.''
``He was so sympathetic and gentle ... and so wistful.'' They sat on John's small bed in the night-nursery. He threw the clothes back and crawled out, nestling against Jenny. ``Back to bed,'' she said, ``or I shall spank you.''
``Would you do it hard? I shouldn't mind.''
``Oh dear,'' said Brenda, ``what a terrible effect you seem to have. He's never like this as a rule.''
When they had gone nanny threw open another window. ``Poof!'' she said, ``making the whole place stink.''
``Don't you like it? I think it's lovely.''
Brenda took Polly up to Lyonesse. It was a large suite, fitted up with satinwood for King Edward when, as Prince of Wales, he was once expected at a shooting party; he never came.
``How's it going?'' she asked anxiously.