Page:Crome Yellow.djvu/277

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CROME YELLOW
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“But of course,” said Anne, “there’s any amount of opportunity. We’ll put you down definitely for the drums. That’s the lot,”she added.

“And a very good lot too,” said Gombauld. “I look forward to my Bank Holiday. It ought to be gay.”

“It ought indeed,” Mr. Scogan assented. “But you may rest assured that it won’t be. No holiday is ever anything but a disappointment.”

“Come, come,” protested Gombauld. “My holiday at Crome isn’t being a disappointment.”

“Isn’t it?’ Anne turned an ingenu- ous mask towards him.

“No, it isn’t,” he answered.

“I’m delighted to hear it.”

“It’s in the very nature of things,” Mr. Scogan went on; “our holidays can’t help being disappointments. Reflect for a moment. What is a holiday? The ideal, the Platonic Holiday of Hollidays is surely a complete and absolute change. You agree with me in my definition?” Mr. Scogan glanced from face to face round the table; his sharp nose moved in a series of rapid jerks through all the points of the compass.

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