"My apologies! I intended no vulgarity. Once again, I bid you good day."
"I will conduct you to Trilda," said Grofinet. "These are dangerous parts. It is the least I can do."
"As vou wish."
The two returned to Lally Meadow. Shimrod halted. "You need come no farther. Trilda is only a few steps yonder."
"As we walked," said Grofinet, "I pondered. It came to me that I am much in your debt."
"Say nothing more," declared Shimrod. "I am happy to have 'been of help."
"That is easy for you to say, but the burden weighs on my pride! I am forced to declare myself in your service, until the score is settled. Do not refuse; I am adamant! You need provide only my food and shelter. I will take responsibility for tasks which otherwise might distract you, and even perform minor magics."
"Ah! You are also a magician?"
"An amateur of the art, little more. You may instruct me further, if you like. After all, two trained minds are better than one. And never forget security! When a person intently looks forward, he leaves his backside unguarded!"
Shimrod could not shake Grofinet's resolution, and Grofinet became a member of the household.
At first Grofinet and his activities were a distraction; ten times in the first week Shimrod paused on the very verge of sending Grofinet away, but always drew back in the face of Grofinet's virtues, which were notable. Grofinet caused no irregularities and disturbed none of Shimrod's properties. He was remarkably tidy, and never out of sorts; indeed, Grofinet's high spirits caused the distractions. His mind was fertile and his enthusiasms came one upon the other. For the first few days Grofinet conducted himself with exaggerated diffidence; even so, while Shimrod strained to memorize the interminable lists in The Order of Mutables, Grofinet loped about the house talking to imaginary, or at least invisible, companions.
Presently Shimrod's exasperation became amusement, and he found himself looking forward to Grofinet's next outbreak of foolishness. One day Shimrod waved a fly from his work-table; at once Grofinet became the vigilant enemy of flies, moths, bees, and other winged insects, allowing them no trespass. Unable to catch them, he opened wide the front door, then herded the individual insect to the outdoors. Meanwhile a dozen others entered. Shimrod noticed Grofinet's efforts and worked a small bane upon Trilda, which sent every insect fleeing posthaste from the house. Grofinet was greatly pleased by his success.
At last, bored with boasting of his triumph over the insects, Grofinet developed a new caprice. He spent several days contriving wings of withe and yellow silk, which he strapped to his lank torso. Looking from his window Shimrod watched him running across Lally Meadow, flapping his wings and bounding into the air, hoping to fly like a bird. Shimrod was tempted to lift Grofinet by magic and flit him aloft. He controlled the whimsy lest Grofinet become dangerously elated and bring himself to harm. Later in the afternoon Grofinet attempted a great bound and fell into Lally Water. The fairies of Tuddifot Shee spent themselves in immoderate glee, rolling and tumbling, kicking their legs into the air.
Grofinet threw aside the wings in disgust, and limped back to Trilda.
Grofinet next gave himself to the study of the Egyptian pyramids.
"They are extraordinarily fine and a credit to the pharaohs!" declared Grofinet.
"Exactly so."
On the next morning Grofinet spoke farther on the subject. "These mighty monuments are fascinating in their simplicity."
"True."
"I wonder what might be their scope?"
Shimrod shrugged. "A hundred yards to the side, more or less, or so I suppose."
Later Shimrod observed Grofinet pacing out dimensions along Lally Meadow. He called out: "What are you doing?"
"Nothing of consequence."
"I hope you are not planning to build a pyramid! It would block the sunlight!"
Grofinet paused in his pacing. "Perhaps you are right." He reluctantly suspended his plans, but quickly discovered a new interest. During the evening Shimrod came into the parlor to light the lamps. Grofinet stepped from the shadows. "Now then, Sir Shimrod, did you see me as you passed?"
Shimrod's mind had been elsewhere, and Grofinet had stood somewhat back past his range of vision. "For a fact," said Shimrod, I utterly failed to see you."
"In that case," said Grofinet, "I have learned the technique of invisibility!"
"Wonderful! What is your secret?"
"I use the force of sheer will to put myself beyond perception!"
"I must learn this method."
"Intellectual thrust, pure and simple, is the key," said Grofinet, and added the warning: "If you fail, don't be disappointed. It is a difficult feat."
"We shall see."
The following day Grofinet experimented with his new sleight.
Shimrod would calclass="underline" "Grofinet! Where are you? Have you gone invisible again?" Whereupon Grofinet would step from a corner of the room in triumph.
One day Grofinet suspended himself from the ceiling beams of the workroom, on a pair of straps, to hang as if in a hammock.
Shimrod, upon entering the room, might have noticed nothing, except that Grofinet had neglected to put up his tail, which dangled into the middle of the room, terminating in a tuft of tawny fur.
Grofinet at last decided to put by all his previous ambitions and to become a magician in earnest. To this end he frequented the workroom, to watch Shimrod at his manipulations. He was, however, intensely afraid of fire; whenever Shimrod, for one reason or another, excited a tongue of flame, Grofinet bounded from the room in a panic, and at last put by his plans to become a magician.
Midsummer's Eve drew near. Coincidentally a series of vivid dreams came to disturb Shimrod's sleep. The landscape was always the same: a terrace of white stone overlooking a beach of white sand and a calm blue sea beyond. A marble balustrade enclosed the terrace, and low surf broke into foam along the beach.
In the first dream Shimrod leaned on the balustrade, idly surveying the sea. Along the beach came walking a dark-haired maiden, in a sleeveless smock of a soft gray-brown cloth. As she approached, Shimrod saw that she was slender and an inch or so taller than medium stature. Black hair, caught in a twist of dark red twine, hung almost to her shoulders. Her arms and bare feet were graceful; her skin was a pale olive. Shimrod thought her exquisitely beautiful, with an added quality which included both mystery and a kind of provocation that, rather than overt, was implicit in her very existence. As she passed, she turned Shimrod a somber half-smile, neither inviting nor forbidding, then went along the beach and out of sight. Shimrod stirred in his sleep and awoke.
The second dream was the same, except that Shimrod called to the maiden and invited her to the terrace; she hesitated, smilingly shook her head and passed on.
On the third night, she halted and spoke: "Why do you call me, Shimrod?"
"I want you to stop, and at least talk with me."
The maiden demurred. "I think not. I know very little of men, and I am frightened, for I feel a strange impulse when I pass by."
On the fourth night, the maiden of the dream paused, hesitated, then slowly approached the terrace. Shimrod stepped down to meet her, but she halted and Shimrod found that he could approach her no more closely, which in the context of the dream seemed not unnatural. He asked: "Today will you speak to me?"
"I know of nothing to tell you."
"Why do you walk the beach?"
"Because it pleases me."
"Whence do you come and where do you go?"
"I am a creature of your dreams; I walk in and out of thought."
"Dream-thing or not, come closer and stay with me. Since the dream is mine, you must obey."
"That is not the nature of dreams." As she turned away, she looked over her shoulder, and when at last Shimrod awoke, he remembered the exact quality of her expression. Enchantment! But to what purpose?
Shimrod walked out on the meadow, considering the situation from every conceivable aspect. A sweet enticement was being laid upon him by subtle means, and no doubt to his eventual disadvantage.