"What name, sir?" asked the footman of the Prophet, bending his powdered head till it was only about six feet two inches from the floor.
"Mr. Hennessey Vivian," replied the Prophet, hesitating as to what he should add.
"Mr. Hemmerspeed Vivian!" roared the footman. "What name, Madame?" (to Madame Sagittarius).
"Mr. and Madame Sagittarius of Sagittarius Lodge, the Mouse!" replied the lady majestically.
"Mr.--and Madame--Segerteribus--of--Segerteribus--Lodge, the Mouse!"
bawled the footman.
The stout lady, who was Mrs. Vane Bridgeman, started and smiled.
"Delighted to see you, Mr. Segerteribus!" she said to the Prophet.
The Prophet hastened to explain through the uproar of twenty guitars.
"Mr. Vivian is my name. I think Miss Minerva Partridge--"
Mrs. Bridgeman started and smiled.
"Of course," she exclaimed. "Of course. You are to be kind enough to introduce me some day to Mr. Sagi--Sagi--something or other, and I am to introduce him to Sir Tiglath b.u.t.t, when Sir Tiglath b.u.t.t has been introduced to me by dear Miss Partridge. It is all to work out beautifully. Yes, yes! Charming! charming!"
"I have ventured to bring Mr. and Madame Sagittarius with me to-night,"
said the Prophet.
Mrs. Bridgeman started and smiled.
"They are my old and valued friends, and--and here they are."
"Delighted! delighted!" said Mrs. Bridgeman, speaking in a confused manner through the guitars. "How d"you do, Mr. Sagittarius?"
And she shook hands warmly with a very small and saturnine clergyman decorated with a shock of ebon hair, who was pa.s.sing at the moment.
"Biggle!" said the little clergyman.
Mrs. Bridgeman started and smiled.
"Biggle!" repeated the little clergyman. "Biggle!"
The guitars rose up with violence, and all the hot, drubbing pa.s.sion of Bayswater being Spanish.
"Yes, indeed, I so agree with you, dear Mr. Sagittarius," said Mrs.
Bridgeman to the little clergyman.
"Biggle!" the little clergyman cried in a portentous voice. "Biggle!
Biggle!"
"What does he mean?" whispered Mrs. Bridgeman to the Prophet. "How does one?"
"I think that is his name. These are Mr. and Madame Sagittarius."
Mrs. Bridgeman started and smiled.
"Biggle--of course," she said to the little clergyman, who pa.s.sed on with an air of reliant self-satisfaction. "Delighted to see you," she added, this time addressing the Prophet"s old and valued friends. "Ah!
Mr. Sagi--Sagi--um--I have heard so much of you from dear Miss Minerva."
The wild, high notes of a flute, played by a silly gentleman from Tooting, shrilled through the tupping of the guitars, and Mr.
Sagittarius, trembling in every limb, hissed in Mrs. Bridgeman"s ear,--
"Hush, ma"am, for mercy"s sake!"
Mrs. Bridgeman started and forgot to smile.
"My loved and honoured wife," continued Mr. Sagittarius, in a loud and anxious voice, "more to me than any lunar guide or starry monitor!
Madame Sagittarius, a lady of deep education, ma"am."
"Delighted!" said Mrs. Bridgeman, making a gracious grimace at Madame, who inclined herself stonily and replied in a sinister voice,--
"It is indeed time that this renconter took place. Henceforth, ma"am, I shall be ever at my husband"s side, _per fus et nefus_--_et nefus_, ma"am."
"So glad," said Mrs. Bridgeman. "I have been longing for this--"
"Mr. Bernard Wilkins!" roared the tall footman.
Mr. Sagittarius started and Mrs. Bridgeman did the same and smiled.
"Bernard Wilkins the Prophet!" Mr. Sagittarius exclaimed. "From the Rise!"
"Mrs. Eliza Doubleway!" shouted the footman.
"Mrs. Eliza!" cried Mr. Sagittarius, in great excitement. "That"s the soothsayer from the Beck!"
"Madame Charlotte Humm!" yelled the footman.
"Madame Humm!" vociferated Mr. Sagittarius, "the crystal-gazer from the Hill!"
"Professor Elijah Chapman!" bawled the footman.
"The nose-reader!" piped Mr. Sagittarius. "The nose-reader from the b.u.t.ts!"
"Verano!" screamed the footman, triumphantly submerging the flute and the twenty guitars. "Verano!"
"The South American Irish palmist from the Downs! My love," said Mr.
Sagittarius, in a cracking voice, "we are in it to-night, we are indeed; we are fairly and squarely in it."
Madame began to bridle and to look as ostentatious as a leviathan.
"And if we are, Jupiter!" she said in a voice that rivalled the footman"s--"if we are, we are merely in our element. They needn"t think to come over me!"