H A N T S W I T
H T H E I R B L
A C K B AC K S
W O E H O W T H
A T S I G H T A
W E D M E T H E
E L V E S D A N
C E D A L L A R
O U N D A N D A
B O U T W H I L
E I H E A R D V
O I C E S C A L
L I N G C L E A
R L Y A H H O W
I T R I E D T O
S E E T H R O W
O F F T H E U G
L Y C L O U D B
U T N O B L I N
D E Y E O F A M
O R T A L W A S
P E R M I T T E
D T O S P Y T H
E M S O T H E N
C A M E M I N S
T R E L S H A V
I N G G O L D T
R U M P E T S H
A R P S A N D D
R U M S T H E S
E P L A Y E D V
E R Y L O U D L
Y B E S I D E M
E B R E A K I N
G T H A T S P E
L L S O T H E D
R E A M V A N I
S H E D W H E R
E A T I T H A N
K E D H E A V E
N I S H E D M A
N Y T E A R S B
E F O R E T H E
T H I N M O O N
R O S E U P F R
A I L A N D F A
I N T A S A S I
C K L E O F S T
R A W N O W T H
O U G H T H E E
N C H A N T E R
G N A S H H I S
T E E T H V A I
N L Y Y E T S H
A L L H E R E T
U R N A S T H E
S P R I N G R E
T U R N SO H W
R E T C H E D M
A N H E L L G A
P E S E R E B U
S N O W L I E S
O P E N T H E M
O U T H S O F D
E A T H W A I T
O N T H Y E N D
NOTE
[1] “Doubles” is the name given to a set of changes rung on 5 bells, the tenor (No. 6) being rung last or “behind” in each change.
THE NINTH PART
EMILY TURNS BUNTER FROM BEHIND
Let the bell that the Treble turns from behind make thirds place, and return behind again.
Rules for Change-Making on Four Bells.
“I should like,” panted Emily between her sobs, “to give my week’s warning.”
“Good gracious, Emily!” cried Mrs. Venables, pausing as she passed through the kitchen with a pail of chickenfeed, “what on earth is the matter with you?”
“I’m sure,” said Emily, “I ain’t got no fault to find with you and Rector as has always been that kind, but if I’m to be spoken to so by Mr. Bunter, which I’m not his servant and never want to be and ain’t no part of my duties, and anyway how was I to know? I’m sure I’d have cut my right hand off rather than disoblige his lordship, but I did ought to have been told and it ain’t my fault and so I told Mr. Bunter.”
Mrs. Venables turned a little pale. Lord Peter presented no difficulties, but Bunter she found rather alarming. But she was of the bulldog breed, and had been brought up in the knowledge that a servant was a servant, and that to be afraid of a servant (one’s own or anybody else’s) was the first step to an Avernus of domestic inefficiency. She turned to Bunter, standing white and awful in the background.
“Well now, Bunter,” she said, firmly. “What is all this trouble about?”
“I beg your pardon, madam,” said Bunter in a stifled manner. “I fear that I forgot myself. But I have been in his lordship’s service now for going on fifteen years (counting my service under him in the War), and such a thing has never yet befallen me. In the sudden shock and the bitter mortification of my mind, I spoke with considerable heat. I beg, madam, that you will overlook it. I should have controlled myself better. I assure you that it will not occur again.”
Mrs. Venables put down the chicken-pail.
“But what was it all about?”
Emily gulped, and Bunter pointed a tragic finger at a beer-bottle which stood on the kitchen table. “That bottle, madam, was entrusted to me yesterday by his lordship. I placed it in a cupboard in my bedroom, with the intention of photographing it this morning, before despatching it to Scotland Yard. Yesterday evening, it seems that this young woman entered the room during my absence, investigated the cupboard and removed the bottle. Not content with removing it, she dusted it.”
“If you please ’m,” said Emily, “how was I to know it was wanted? A nasty, dirty old thing. I was only a-dusting the room, ’m, and I see this old bottle on the cupboard shelf, and I says to myself, ‘Look at that dusty old bottle, why, however did that get there? It must have got left accidental.’ So I takes it down and when Cook see it she says, ‘Why, whatever have you got there, Emily? That’ll just do,’ she says, ‘to put the methylated.’ So I gives it a dust—”
“And now the finger-prints have all gone,” concluded Bunter in a hollow tone, “and what to say to his lordship I do not know.”
“Oh, dear! oh, dear!” said Mrs. Venables, helplessly. Then she seized on the one point of domestic economy which seemed to call for inquiry. “How did you come to leave your dusting so late?”