The Willows in Winter by William Horwood
Author:William Horwood
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2011-08-23T12:17:54+00:00
“Ho!” cried Toad once he was alone, and the door locked again, sitting himself down at the carver provided, and beginning to eat whatever took his fancy, and to drink whatever he could reach. “This is the life! This is the natural order of things. I do not regret that Badger and Rat and Mole cannot see me now, for if they could they would feel envious. They are lowly animals, I fear, without ambition and therefore without hope. But I, Toad, make things happen! This is my life as it was meant to be!”
He ate rather more than he should, and certainly drank more than was good for him, so that as the evening wore on and the fire grew dimmer Toad began to slip into a slumber that was dangerously like a stupor. Then he crawled back into bed.
So Toad’s first night in luxury passed by, and it was the beginning of three days of utter self-indulgence at the expense of someone else, during which he took the greatest advantage of his situation, putting from his mind the thought that his good fortune could not last forever.
Nor did it, for on the fourth morning the butler Prendergast, now his friend, called upon him. Toad hastily put on his headgear and goggles once more and allowed him in.
“Sir” said he, “as I intimated the day before yesterday, and again more strongly yesterday, His Lordship is now anxious that you should descend.”
“Descend?” said Toad, muttering the miserable word most reluctantly, for he knew what it meant — that he must descend the stairs into reality, and the certainty of discovery. He vaguely remembered explaining a good many times that he was still ill, and must still wear his aeronaut’s outfit, and thinking that his excuses and prevarications were wearing thin.
“Yes, sir. The time has come to go downstairs. His Lordship awaits you, as he has these days past, and others too.
“Others?” whispered Toad, with the gravest of forebodings.
“Certainly, sir. There is the Royal Commissioner of Police, His Honour the Right Eminent Justice of the Very Highest Court Imperial, and several gentlemen of the Press.”
“All wishing to see me?”
“Yes, sir’ said the butler.
“To speak to me?”
“To interview you, sir, I should say In the absence of your person they have been striving to interview me, sir, but my lips are sealed.”
Interview! He was right then. He was suspected, despite his disguise, and even he could not easily fool a Commissioner of the Police and an eminent Justice.
“I am in a desperate situation,” said Toad sombrely.
“You are too modest, sir.”
“Ah!” thought Toad. “It is even worse than I thought! If being ‘desperate’ is merely ‘modest’, in what position must I really be!”
“I am not a rich man,” began Toad in his most unctuous voice, “but if you would help me escape, unseen, then I could perhaps slip you a — a form.”
“A form, sir?” said the respectable Prendergast, puzzled.
“Two then, though that is generous. “Two, sir?”
“You are a hard fellow, and a heartless one!” cried Toad.
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