Kew followed her, and Anonyma, after a moment’s hesitation, went too.  But Mr. Russell, who had finished his work of mercy, seemed to think it better to linger in the bathroom, explaining to his Hound the subject of a Biblical picture which hung over the bath.

“You might think I was rather too old to play things well,” the mother said to Kew.  “But you should see me with Murray.  Even my deafness never hindered me with him, I could always see what he said.  Look, we made this road for the soldiers coming down to the wharf.  Do you see the way we helped nature, by tampering with the roots of the beech.  It is a perfect wharf, this little flat bit, it is just level with the deck of the boat at high tide.  The lower wharf is for low tide, but of course we have to pretend the tides.  That round place is the bandstand, and there the pipers play when there is a troop-ship starting.  Sometimes only the Favourite Piper plays, striding up and down the little bowling-green at the top here, but not often, because the work of keeping him going interferes with the disembarkation.  We never let the Highlanders go abroad, because Murray loves them so.  He is afraid lest something should happen to them.  Were the Highlanders your favourites?”

Kew wrote on the slate:  “No, the Egyptian Camel Corps.”

The lady nodded.  “We loved them too, but of course they lived on the other side of the pond, and sometimes they and the Sepoys and the Soudanese had to insurrect.  Somebody had to, you know, but we regretted the Egyptian Camel Corps awfully.  I hope you don’t think us silly....  Murray was always a childish person.  I hope I am too.  The bowling-green gave us a lot of trouble to make; it is nice and flat, isn’t it?  We trim it with nail-scissors.”

It was a good bowling-green, about twelve inches by six.  There were some marbles on it.

“It has historical associations,” said the mother of Murray.  “It was here that Drake played when the Armada was sighted.  Of course that was before our time, but sometimes, on a moonlit summer night, we used to lie down on our fronts and see his little ghost haunting the green.  We used to bring our young sailors here, and inspire them with stories about Drake.  The sailors used to stand on the green, and we put up railings made of matches all round, and civilians used to stand in great breathless crowds outside the railings watching.  Chessmen, of course.  Murray used to make the civilians arrive in motors, so as to make ruts in the road.  Somehow it was always rather splendid and real to have ruts in the road.”

There was a long pause.