'Then he is no gentleman,' the aunt observed sadly.
'He lets vampires and werewolves into the Watch,' said Miss Tarantella Lavish. 'It's disgusting, the way they're allowed to walk the streets like real people.'
- and something went ping! in Cosmo's memory.
'He's just like real people', said the voice of his father.
'This is your problem, Cosmo Lavish!' said Josephine, unwilling to see targets switched. 'It was your wretched father who - '
'Shut up,' said Cosmo calmly. 'Shut up. And those emeralds do not suit you, by the way.'
This was unusual. Lavishes might sue and conspire and belittle and slander, but there was such a thing as good manners, after all.
In Cosmo's head there was another ping, and his father saying: 'And he's managed to hide what he is so well, and at great pain. What he was is probably not even there any more. But you'd better know in case he starts acting funny. . .'
'My father rebuilt the business of the bank,' said Cosmo, the voice still ringing in his head as Josephine drew breath for a tirade, 'and you all let him. Yes, you let him. You didn't care what he did so long as the bank was available to you for all your little schemes, the ones we so carefully conceal and don't talk about. He bought out all the small shareholders, and you didn't mind so long as you got your dividends. It was just a shame that his choice in chums was flawed - '
'Not as bad as his choice of that upstart music-hall girl!' said Josephine.
' - although his choice in his last wife, however, was not,' Cosmo went on. 'Topsy was cunning, devious, ruthless and merciless. The problem I have is simply that she was better at all this than you are. And now I must ask you all to leave. I am going to get our bank back. Do see yourselves out.'
He got up, walked to the door, shut it carefully behind him, and then ran like hell for his study, where he stood with his back to the door and gloated, an exercise he had just the face for.
Good old Dad! Of course, that little talk had been back when he was ten and didn't have his own lawyer yet, and hadn't fully embraced the Lavish tradition of prickly and guarded involvement. But Dad had been sensible. He hadn't just been giving Cosmo advice, he'd been giving him ammunition which could be used against the others. What else was a father for?
Mr Bent! Was... not just Mr Bent. He was something out of nightmares. At the time the revelation had scared young Cosmo, and later on he'd been ready to sue his father over those sleepless nights, in the very best Lavish tradition, but he'd hesitated and that was just as well. It would all have come out in court and he'd have thrown away a wonderful gift.
So the Lipwig fellow thought he controlled the bank, did he? Well, you couldn't run the bank without Mavolio Bent, and by this time tomorrow he, Cosmo Lavish, would own Mr Bent. Hmm, yes... leave it perhaps a little longer. Another day of dealing with Lipwig's bizarre recklessness would wind up poor Mr Bent to the point where Cranberry's special powers of persuasion would hardly be required. Oh, yes.
Cosmo pushed his eyebrow up. He was getting the hang of it, he was sure. He'd been just like Vetinari out there, hadn't he? Yes, he had. The look on the family's faces when he'd told Josephine to shut up! Even the recollection made his spine tingle...
Was this the time? Yes, just for a minute, perhaps. He deserved it... He unlocked a drawer in his desk, reached inside, and pressed the hidden button. On the other side of his desk a secret compartment slid out. From it, Cosmo took a small black skullcap. It seemed as good as new. Heretofore was a genius.
Cosmo lowered the cap on to his head with great solemnity.
Someone knocked on the study door. This was pointless, since it was then slammed open.
'Locking yourself in your room again, bro?' said Pucci triumphantly.
At least Cosmo had strangled the impulse to snatch the cap from his head as if he'd been caught doing something dirty.
'It was not in fact locked, as you see,' he said, 'and you are forbidden to come within fifteen yards of me. I have an injunction.'
'And you are not allowed to be within twenty yards of me, so you broke it first,' said Pucci, pulling up a chair. She straddled it heavily and rested her arms on the back. The wood creaked.
'I wasn't the one who moved, I think?'
'Well, cosmically it's all the same,' said Pucci. 'You know, that's a dangerous obsession you have there.'
Now Cosmo took off the cap. 'I'm simply trying to get inside the man,' he said.
'A very dangerous obsession.'
'You know what I mean. I want to know how his mind works.'
'And this?' Pucci said, waving a hand at the large picture that hung on the wall opposite the desk.
'William Pouter's Man with dog. It's a painting of Vetinari. Notice how the eyes follow you around the room.'