Six
Tommy looked rather gingerly at the packet that Tuppence thrust uponhim.
“Is this it?”
“Yes. Be careful. Don’t get it over you.”
Tommy took a delicate sniff¹ at the packet and replied with energy.
“No, indeed. What is this frightful² stuff?”
“Asafoetida,” replied Tuppence. “A pinch of that and you will wonderwhy your boyfriend is no longer attentive³, as the advertisements say.”
“Shades of BO,” murmured Tommy.
Shortly after that, various incidents occurred.
The first was the smell in Mr. Meadowes’ room.
Mr. Meadowes, not a complaining man by nature, spoke⁴ about it mildlyat first, then with increasing firmness.
Mrs. Perenna was summoned into conclave⁵. With all the will to resist inthe world, she had to admit that there was a smell. A pronounced unpleas-ant smell. Perhaps, she suggested, the gas tap of the fire was leaking.
Bending down and sniffing⁶ dubiously⁷, Tommy remarked that he did notthink the smell came from there. Nor from under the floor. He himselfthought, definitely—a dead rat.
Mrs. Perenna admitted that she had heard of such things—but she wassure there were no rats at Sans Souci. Perhaps a mouse—though she her-self had never seen a mouse.
Mr. Meadowes said with firmness that he thought the smell indicated atleast a rat—and he added, still more firmly, that he was not going to sleepanother night in the room until the matter had been seen to. He would askMrs. Perenna to change his room.
Mrs. Perenna said, “Of course, she had just been about to suggest thesame thing. She was afraid that the only room vacant was rather a smallone and unfortunately it had no sea view, but if Mr. Meadowes did notmind that—”
Mr. Meadowes did not. His only wish was to get away from the smell.
Mrs. Perenna thereupon accompanied him to a small bedroom, the doorof which happened to be just opposite the door of Mrs. Blenkensop’s room,and summoned the adenoidal semi-idiotic Beatrice to “move Mr. Mead-owes’ things.” She would, she explained, send for “a man” to take up thefloor and search for the origin of the smell.

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