ch Susan got up last night ended in disaster. I
thought it would. The Grobmayer child, a particularly loathsome
five-year-old, had appeared as 'Bubbles' during the early part of the
evening, and been put to bed during the interval. Adrian watched his
opportunity and kidnapped it when the nurse was downstairs, and
introduced it during the second half of the entertainment, thinly
disguised as a performing pig. It certainly LOOKED very like a pig, and
grunted and slobbered just like the real article; no one knew exactly
what it was, but every one said it was awfully clever, especially the
Grobmayers. At the third curtain Adrian pinched it too hard, and it
yelled 'Marmar'! I am supposed to be good at descriptions, but don't
ask me to describe the sayings and doings of the Grobmayers at that
moment; it was like one of the angrier Psalms set to Strauss's music.
We have moved to an hotel higher up the valley."

Clovis's next letter arrived five days later, and was written from the
Hotel Steinbock.

"We left the Hotel Victoria this morning. It was fairly comfortable
and quiet--at least there was an air of repose about it when we
arrived. Before we had been in residence twenty-four hours most of the
repose had vanished 'like a dutiful bream,' as Adrian expressed it.
However, nothing unduly outrageous happened till last night, when
Adrian had a fit of insomnia and amused himself by unscrewing and
transposing all the bedroom numbers on his floor. He transferred the
bathroom label to the adjoining bedroom door, which happened to be that
of Frau Hoftath Schilling, and this morning from seven o'clock onwards
the old lady had a stream of involuntary visitors; she was too
horrified and scandalized it seems to get up and lock her door. The
would-be bathers flew back in confusion to their rooms, and, of course,
the change of numbers led them astray again, and the corridor gradually
filled with panic-stricken, scantily robed humans, dashing wildly about
like rabbits in a ferret-infested warren. It took nearly an hour
before the guests were all sorted into their respective rooms, and the
Frau Hofrath's condition was still causing some anxiety when we left.
Susan is beginning to look a little worried. She can't very well turn
the boy adrift, as he hasn't got any money, and she can't send him to
his people as she doesn't know where they are. Adrian says his mother
moves about a good deal and he's lost her address. Probably, if h