Nor she in my house. I will set fire to it sooner. There!
My dear, what a good lunch you have given me. May we play croquet at
once?"
Lucia's garden-parties were scheduled from four to seven and
half-an-hour before the earliest guest might be expected, she was
casting an eagle eye over the preparations which today were on a very
sumptuous scale. The bowls were laid out in the bowling alley, not
because anybody in Hightums dresses was the least likely to risk the
stooping down and the strong movements that the game entailed, but
because bowls were Elizabethan. Between the alley and the lawn nearer
to the house was a large marquee, where the commoner crowd--though no
crowd could be really common in Riseholme--would refresh itself. But
even where none are common there may still be degrees in rarity, and by
the side of this general refreshment room was a smaller tent carpeted
with Oriental rugs, and having inside it some half-dozen chairs, and two
seats which can only be described as thrones, for Lady Ambermere or Olga
Bracely, while Lucia's Guru, though throneworthy, would very kindly sit
in one of his most interesting attitudes on the floor. This tent was
designed only for high converse, and common guests (if they were good)
would be led into it and introduced to the great presences, while for
the refreshment of the presences, in intervals of audience, a more
elaborate meal, with peaches and four sorts of sandwiches was laid in
the smoking-parlour.
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