310 The Diary of a Drug Fiend
up the hill in an extremely business-like manner, looking
back from time to time to make sure that we were all
right.
Dionysus seemed to think it his business to entertain
us with an account of the various objects along the
road.
“ That’s the nice man’s house down there,” he said,
“T’ll take you to lunch with him if you promise to
behave properly. And that’s where the doat-woman
lives,” he went on, apparently assured by our guarantees
of proper conduct.
The solemnity of the elder boy and the rollicking
disposition of the other carried us from spasm to spasm
of suppressed laughter.
“We seem to have walked straight into a fairy tale,”
said Lou.
“The Big Lion says that that’s the only true kind of
tale,” replied Hermes, evidently prepared to argue the
subject at great length if necessary. But I admitted
the truth of his statement without difficulty.
“ That’s the Abbey,” he went on, as we turned the
corner of the hillside. And a long, low, white building
came into sight.
“ But that isn’t an Abbey,” I protested. ‘‘ That’s a
villa.”
“ That’s because you’re looking with the wrong kind
of eyes,’’ objected Hermes. ‘I used to think the same
myself before I was educated.”
“Do you think Mr. Lamus will be able to educate
us ? ’”’ I asked, overpowered by a sense of the comicality
of the situation. ,
“Oh, he isn’t Mr. Lamus here,” retorted Hermes
loftily. ‘‘ Here he’s the Big Lion, and of course he
can train anybody that isn’t too old or too stupid. I
was very stupid myself when I first came here,’ he
continued in an apologetic tone. ‘“‘It was the turning
point of my career.”
The child was certainly not more than five years
old, and his conversation was absolutely incredible. The