E.F. Benson

Queen Lucia

  • Chapter One

    Lucia walks from the station to The Hurst, dismisses London to her husband Peppino, then sees Daisy Quantock walking with a turbaned Indian guru.

  • Chapter Two

    Lucia learns from Daisy Quantock's letter that Daisy has installed a penniless Indian Guru to teach her Yoga, and invites him to her garden party.

  • Chapter Three

    Georgie brings Lucia's note to Daisy Quantock, meets her Guru from Benares and asks to be his pupil, while Daisy plots to keep him and unseat Lucia.

  • Chapter Four

    Lady Ambermere tells Georgie that opera singer Olga Bracely is coming to Riseholme, then Lucia intercepts Daisy Quantock's Guru and takes him to lunch.

  • Chapter Five

    Lucia annexes Daisy Quantock's Guru over tiffin, installs him in her house and arranges yoga classes, while Georgie is left with the dog Tipsipoozie.

  • Chapter Six

    Georgie mistakes his sisters Hermy and Ursy for burglars and confronts them with a poker, then races Lucia to call on the singer Olga Bracely.

  • Chapter Seven

    Olga Bracely skips Lucia's garden party to lunch with Georgie, then arrives late and sings Siegfried after Lucia botches the accompaniment.

  • Chapter Eight

    Hermy and Ursy recognise the Guru as a Calcutta curry-cook, and he vanishes after robbing Lucia, Georgie and Daisy Quantock.

  • Chapter Nine

    Mrs Weston deduces that opera singer Olga Bracely has bought Old Place, and Lucia pretends she knew all along to spoil Georgie's news.

  • Chapter Ten

    Olga throws a gramophone party of games and dancing, Lucia arrives late and winces, then Olga sings Bach at church and Lucia plans a rival evening.

  • Chapter Eleven

    Lucia and Daisy Quantock clash over rival Saturday parties, Georgie realises he loves Olga, and Olga schemes to match Mrs Weston with Colonel Boucher.

  • Chapter Twelve

    Lucia dismisses Olga's quartet as the Brinton players, then learns they are the Spanish Quartet and cannot follow Cortese's Italian at dinner.

  • Chapter Thirteen

    Daisy Quantock brings medium Princess Popoffski to Riseholme for seances while excluding Lucia, then finds eyebrows and muslin proving fraud.

  • Chapter Fourteen

    Robert Quantock reads that Princess Popoffski was exposed as a fraud, so he buys and burns every newspaper to hide it from Daisy and Riseholme.

  • Chapter Fifteen

    Robert and Daisy confess they hid their medium's fraud, then Olga tells Georgie she is off to America and he says he adores her.

  • Chapter Sixteen

    Georgie catches Daisy Quantock dropping a pamphlet for lozenges she believes will make her grow taller, and she swears him to secrecy.