Quote of the Day

"Dead faint my foot," said Susan. "Someone slipped him a Mickey Finn."

Midge turned her head slowly and gazed at her cousin. "Someone slipped him a Mickey Finn?" she repeated in a blank voice.

"Knock-out drops, whatever you like to call them," said Susan. "Someone's always slipping someone a Mickey Finn in the books I read."

"Well, fancy," said Midge. She added slowly, "Who on earth would want to do that to the poor chap..." and then fixed Susan with a stern eye. "Susan...! Was it...?"

Susan giggled. "Where would I get a Mickey Finn?" she said. "No, I reckon if he didn't do it himself that girl did it. All that messing about changing seats and changing trays, stupid way to behave unless she was manoeuvring to get next to him..."

In Midge's opinion people very often did behave stupidly, much oftener than they slipped other people Mickey Finns, for instance. Still, it would only get Susan worked up if she argued with her too much, so she asked cautiously, "What would be the point of all that, then?"

"Well," said Susan cheerfully, "they might be, say, f'r instance, spies. Smuggling the secret papers out of England."

Midge guffawed. "Surely that's a bit old hat, Susie?" she said.

From WHERE IS SUSAN? Chapter 1, Sunday, September the Third. This is the tenth Susan book, which sees Susan and Midge travelling to Venice to meet Charlotte and reunite with Mr. and Mrs. Lyle, who are returning from South Africa. Unfortunately, and they don't know it yet, they are also going to meet up with the ghastly Gascoignes! By this time, Jane Shaw herself was tired of the Carmichaels' awful neighbours, and this would be their final appearance, with the exception of a couple of passing references in A Job for Susan.