His face was pink
and round, with blue eyes, a short nose and very red lips. An almost
complete absence of eyebrow was made up for by a firm little brown
moustache clipped very short, and brushed upwards at its extremities.
Contrary to expectation he was quite tall and fitted very neatly into
his clothes.
The dance came to an end with a low curtsey on Lucia's part, an
obeisance hat in hand from Georgie (this exposure shewing a crop of
hair grown on one side of his head and brushed smoothly over the top
until it joined the hair on the other side) and a clapping of the hands
from Peppino.
"Bravo, bravo," he cried from the tea-table. "Capital!"
Mrs Lucas blew him a kiss in acknowledgment of this compliment and
smiled on her partner. "_Amico!_" she said. "It is nice to see you
again. How goes it?"
"_Va bene_," said Georgie to show he could talk Italian too.
"_Va_ very _bene_ now that you've come back."
"_Grazie!_ Now tell us all the news. We'll have a good gossip."
Georgie's face beamed with a "solemn gladness" at the word, like a
drunkard's when brandy is mentioned.
"Where shall we begin?" he said. "Such a lot to tell you. I think we
must begin with a great bit of news. Something really mysterious."
Lucia smiled inwardly. She felt that she knew for dead certain what the
mysterious news was, and also that she knew far more about it than
Georgie.
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