IV
‘Well,’ said Tuppence, as she left the dinner table that night and wentinto the other room to drink coffee, ‘was it fun or not fun? How were allthe old boys?’
‘Oh, very much the old boys,’ said Tommy. ‘How was your old lady?’
‘Oh the piano tuner came,’ said Tuppence, ‘and it rained in the after-noon so I didn’t see her. Rather a pity, the old lady might have said somethings that were interesting.’
‘My old boy did,’ said Tommy. ‘I was quite surprised. What do you thinkof this place really, Tuppence?’
‘Do you mean the house?’
‘No, I didn’t mean the house. I think I mean Hollowquay.’
‘Well, I think it’s a nice place.’
‘What do you mean by nice?’
‘Well, it’s a good word really. It’s a word one usually despises, but I don’tknow why one should. I suppose a place that’s nice is a place where thingsdon’t happen and you don’t want them to happen. You’re glad they don’t.’
‘Ah. That’s because of our age, I suppose.’
‘No, I don’t think it’s because of that. It’s because it’s nice to know thereare places where things don’t happen. Though I must say somethingnearly happened today.’
‘What do you mean by nearly happened? Have you been doing anythingsilly, Tuppence?’
‘No, of course I haven’t.’
‘Then what do you mean?’
‘I mean that pane¹ of glass at the top of the greenhouse, you know, it wastrembling the other day a bit, had the twitches². Well it practically camedown on my head. Might have cut me to bits.’
‘It doesn’t seem to have cut you to bits,’ said Tommy, looking at her.
‘No. I was lucky. But still, it made me jump rather.’
‘Oh, we’ll have to get our old boy who comes and does things, what’s-his-name? Isaac, isn’t it? Have to get him to look at some of the other panes–Imean, we don’t want you being done in, Tuppence.’
‘Well, I suppose when you buy an old house there’s always somethingwrong with it.’
‘Do you think there’s something wrong with this house, Tuppence?’
‘What on earth do you mean by wrong with this house?’
‘Well, because I heard something rather queer about it today.’
‘What–queer about this house?’
‘Yes.’
‘Really, Tommy, that seems impossible,’ said Tuppence.

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