Thirty-one THE LUCKY MAN

Ten minutes later Emily was hurrying down the lane. Captain Wyatt, lean-ing over his gate, tried to arrest her progress.
“Hi,” he said, “Miss Trefusis. What’s all this I hear?”
“It’s all true,” said Emily hurrying on.
“Yes, but look here. Come in — have a glass of wine or a cup of tea.
There’s plenty of time. No need to hurry. That’s the worst of you civilizedpeople.”
“We’re awful, I know,” said Emily and sped on.
She burst in on Miss Percehouse with the explosive force of a bomb.
“I’ve come to tell you all about it,” said Emily.
And straightaway she poured forth¹ the complete story. It was punctu-ated by various ejaculations of “Bless us,” “You don’t say so?” “Well, I de-clare,” from Miss Percehouse.
When Emily had finished her narrative², Miss Percehouse raised herselfon her elbow and wagged a finger portentously³.
“What did I say?” she demanded. “I told you Burnaby was a jealousman. Friends indeed! For more than twenty years Trevelyan has doneeverything a bit better than Burnaby. He skied better, and he climbed bet-ter, and he shot better, and he did crossword⁴ puzzles better. Burnabywasn’t a big enough man to stand it. Trevelyan was rich and he was poor.
“It’s been going on a long time. I can tell you it’s a difficult thing to go onreally liking⁵ a man who can do everything just a little bit better than youcan. Burnaby was a narrow-minded, small-natured man. He let it get onhis nerves.”
“I expect you’re right,” said Emily. “Well, I had to come and tell you. Itseemed so unfair you should be out of everything. By the way, did youknow that your nephew knew my Aunt Jennifer? They were having tea to-gether at Deller’s on Wednesday.”
“She’s his godmother,” said Miss Percehouse. “So that’s the ‘fellow’ hewanted to see in Exeter. Borrowing money, if I know Ronnie. I’ll speak tohim.”
“I forbid you to bite anyone on a

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