But anyhow when he
swayed backwards and forwards, he wasn't drunk, for presently he stood
on one leg, and crooked the other behind it, and remained there with
his hands up, as if he was praying, for quite a long time without
swaying at all. So he couldn't have been tipsy. And then he sat down
again, and took off his slippers, and held his toes with one hand,
while his legs were quite straight out, and put his other hand round
behind his head, and grasped his other ear with it. I tried to do it on
my bedroom floor, but I couldn't get near it. Then he sat up again and
called 'Chela! Chela!' and Mrs Quantock came running out."
"Why did he say 'Chela'?" asked Lucia.
"I wondered too. But I knew I had some clue to it, so I looked through
some books by Rudyard Kipling, and found that Chela meant 'Disciple.'
What you have told me just now about 'Guru' being 'teacher,' seems to
piece the whole thing together."
"And what did Daisy do?" asked Mrs Lucas breathlessly.
"She sat down too, and put her legs out straight in front of her like
the Guru, and tried to hold the toe of her shoe in her fingers, and
naturally she couldn't get within yards of it. I got nearer than she
did. And he said, 'Beloved lady, not too far at first.'"
"So you could hear too," said Lucia.
"Naturally, for my window was open, and as you know Mrs Quantock's
pear-tree is quite close to the house.
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