[My cook] is away on a holiday and there is a possibility that she will not be back by then; and in the meantime there is nobody else. You may, therefore, have to submit to a modicum of discomfort: . . . your boots will probably have to accumulate to some extent before they are cleaned on the larger scale. You have so many boots, however, that I venture to hope that this will not incommode you unduly.
This welcome was seasoned later by a story
which Teixeira invented, describing his
efforts to dislodge me. According to this, he
used to fall resonantly from his bedroom to his
study at 5.0 each morning and, if this failed to
rouse me, he would mount the stairs again
and continue to throw himself down until I
waked. At 6.0 a cup of tea would be brought
me; at 7.0 the morning paper; at 8.0 my
letters. When I went to my bath at 8.30,
Teixeira used to assert that he flung my
clothes into a suit-case, tiptoed downstairs
and laid the case on the doorstep. His tactics
failed because I only waited until he was
locked in the bathroom before creeping down
and retrieving the case.
As our leave was over for the year, there
