The House of the Four Winds

Chapter II-3

“Luigi spoke the truth,” said Mr Glynde smiling, “when he said that he would conduct you to a better restaurant.”

The footman withdrew and silence fell. Bees wandered among the heliotrope and verbena and pots of sapphire agapanthus, and even that shady place felt the hot breath of the summer noon. Sleep would undoubtedly have overtaken Jaikie and Mr Glynde, but for the vigour of Prince Odalchini, who seemed, like a salamander, to draw life and sustenance from the heat. His high-pitched, rather emotional voice kept his auditors wakeful. “I will explain to you,” he told Jaikie, “what you cannot know or have only heard in a perversion. I take up the history of Evallonia after Prince John sailed from your Scotch loch.”

He took a long time over his exposition, and as he went on Jaikie found h