LOVE COMES IN
It was a beautiful day in July and the country was looking its best.
Roger rose at 7.30 a.m. and performed those gentle, health-giving
exercises which have already been described in previous chapters. On
this glorious morning, however, he added a simple exercise for the
elbows to his customary ones, and went down to his breakfast as hungry
as the proverbial hunter. A substantial meal of five dried beans and a
stewed nut awaited him in the fine oak-panelled library; and as he did
ample justice to the banquet his thoughts went back to the terrible days
when he lived the luxurious meat-eating life of the ordinary
man-about-town; to the evening when he discovered the body of Sir
Eustace Butt, M.P., and swore to bring the assassin to vengeance; to the
day when----
Suddenly he realised that his thoughts were wandering. With iron will he
controlled them and concentrated fixedly on the word "dough-nut" for
twelve minutes. Greatly refreshed, he rose and strode out into the sun.
At the door of his cottage a girl was standing. She was extremely
beautiful, and Roger's heart would have jumped if he had not had that
organ (thanks to Twisting Exercise 23) under perfect control.
"Is this the way to Denfield?" she asked.
"Straight on," said Roger.
He returned to his cottage, breathing heavily through his ears.