The latter did not turn round but danced away with his eyes on the horizon.
The doctor put on his glasses again, looked severely at the two for some seconds, with his head on one side like a bird's, and then saying, shortly, "All right," strutted away into the house, where the three Misses Chadd were all looking out from the parlour window on to the garden.They looked out on it with hungry eyes for a full hour without moving, and they saw a sight which was more extraordinary than madness itself.
Basil Grant addressed a few questions to the madman, without succeeding in making him do anything but continue to caper, and when he had done this slowly took a red note-book out of one pocket and a large pencil out of another.
He began hurriedly to scribble notes.When the lunatic skipped away from him he would walk a few yards in pursuit, stop, and make notes again.Thus they followed each other round and round the foolish circle of turf, the one writing in pencil with the face of a man working out a problem, the other leaping and playing like a child.
After about three-quarters of an hour of this imbecile scene, Grant put the pencil in his pocket, but kept the note-book open in his hand, and walking round the mad professor, planted himself directly in front of him.
Then occurred something that even those already used to that wild morning had not anticipated or dreamed.The professor, on finding Basil in front of him, stared with a blank benignity for a few seconds, and then drew up his left leg and hung it bent in the attitude that his sister had described as being the first of all his antics.And the moment he had done it Basil Grant lifted his own leg and held it out rigid before him, confronting Chadd with the flat sole of his boot.The professor dropped his bent leg, and swinging his weight on to it kicked out the other behind, like a man swimming.Basil crossed his feet like a saltire cross, and then flung them apart again, giving a leap into the air.Then before any of the spectators could say a word or even entertain a thought about the matter, both of them were dancing a sort of jig or hornpipe opposite each other; and the sun shone down on two madmen instead of one.
They were so stricken with the deafness and blindness of monomania that they did not see the eldest Miss Chadd come out feverishly into the garden with gestures of entreaty, a gentleman following her.Professor Chadd was in the wildest posture of a pas-de-quatre, Basil Grant seemed about to turn a cart-wheel, when they were frozen in their follies by the steely voice of Adelaide Chadd saying, "Mr Bingham of the British Museum."Mr Bingham was a slim, well-clad gentleman with a pointed and slightly effeminate grey beard, unimpeachable gloves, and formal but agreeable manners.He was the type of the over-civilized, as Professor Chadd was of the uncivilized pedant.His formality and agreeableness did him some credit under the circumstances.He had a vast experience of books and a considerable experience of the more dilettante fashionable salons.But neither branch of knowledge had accustomed him to the spectacle of two grey-haired middle-class gentlemen in modern costume throwing themselves about like acrobats as a substitute for an after-dinner nap.
The professor continued his antics with perfect placidity, but Grant stopped abruptly.The doctor had reappeared on the scene, and his shiny black eyes, under his shiny black hat, moved restlessly from one of them to the other.
"Dr Colman," said Basil, turning to him, "will you entertain Professor Chadd again for a little while? I am sure that he needs you.Mr Bingham, might I have the pleasure of a few moments'
private conversation? My name is Grant."
Mr Bingham, of the British Museum, bowed in a manner that was respectful but a trifle bewildered.
"Miss Chadd will excuse me," continued Basil easily, "if I know my way about the house." And he led the dazed librarian rapidly through the back door into the parlour.
"Mr Bingham," said Basil, setting a chair for him, "I imagine that Miss Chadd has told you of this distressing occurrence.""She has, Mr Grant," said Bingham, looking at the table with a sort of compassionate nervousness."I am more pained than I can say by this dreadful calamity.It seems quite heart-rending that the thing should have happened just as we have decided to give your eminent friend a position which falls far short of his merits.As it is, of course--really, I don't know what to say.Professor Chadd may, of course, retain--I sincerely trust he will--his extraordinarily valuable intellect.But I am afraid--I am really afraid--that it would not do to have the curator of the Asiatic manuscripts--er--dancing about.""I have a suggestion to make," said Basil, and sat down abruptly in his chair, drawing it up to the table.
"I am delighted, of course," said the gentleman from the British Museum, coughing and drawing up his chair also.
The clock on the mantelpiece ticked for just the moments required for Basil to clear his throat and collect his words, and then he said:
"My proposal is this.I do not know that in the strict use of words you could altogether call it a compromise, still it has something of that character.My proposal is that the Government (acting, as Ipresume, through your Museum) should pay Professor Chadd L800 a year until he stops dancing.""Eight hundred a year!" said Mr Bingham, and for the first time lifted his mild blue eyes to those of his interlocutor--and he raised them with a mild blue stare."I think I have not quite understood you.Did I understand you to say that Professor Chadd ought to be employed, in his present state, in the Asiatic manuscript department at eight hundred a year?"Grant shook his head resolutely.
