United States or Eritrea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Aubrey Mannering went through the whole five months without a scratch. He came back with a D.S.O. and a Staff appointment for a short Christmas leave, everybody, except his father, turning out to welcome him as the local hero. Then, for a time, he went to Aldershot as the head of an Officers' School there, and was able to come down occasionally to Chetworth or Mannering.
'Well? said Pamela in a low voice, as she came to sit on a stool near him. He smiled, but she saw that he was pale. 'Can you take me over to Chetworth to-morrow early in the pony-cart? 'Yes, certainly. 'Half-past ten? 'Right you are. No more was said. Aubrey turned at once to Alice Gaddesden and proposed a round game.
No comforting sprite whispered to her that she had won the first round in an arduous campaign. On the contrary, she fully expected dismissal on the morrow. It was a misty but warm October day, and a pleasant veiled light lay on the pillared front of Chetworth House, designed in the best taste of a fastidious school.
The twins had long left the subject of the embargo on Chetworth, and were wrangling and chaffing over the details of Desmond's packing, when there was a knock at the door. Pamela stiffened at once. 'Come in! Miss Bremerton entered. 'Are you very busy? 'Not at all! said Desmond politely, scurrying with his best Eton manners to find a chair for the newcomer.
For the Chetworth gate, which adjoined the land to be attacked, more serious defences were in progress. All his attempts to embarrass the action of the Committee had been so far vain. The alternatives he had proposed had been refused. Fifty acres at the Chetworth end of Mannering Park, besides goodly slices elsewhere, the County Committee meant to have.
And when the brother and sister arrived, he had received them as though nothing had happened. His manners were always brusque and ungracious, except in the case of persons who specially mattered to his own pursuits, such as archæologists and Greek professors. But the Chetworth family were almost as well acquainted with his ways as his own, and his visitors took them philosophically.
So no doubt the second girl-figure was that of Beryl Chicksands, and the other gentleman in khaki was probably Captain Chicksands, for whom Desmond seemed to cherish a boyish hero-worship. They had been all lunching together at Chetworth, she supposed. She watched them coming, with a curious mingling of interest in them and detachment from them. She was to them merely the Squire's paid secretary.
Desmond, who was going off that very evening to his artillery camp, had told her that 'Pam' was driving Aubrey over to Chetworth, and that he, Desmond, was 'jolly well going to see to it that neither old Aubrey nor Beryl were bullied out of their lives by father, if he could help it.
Could a motor-plough work in a fog? Presently, she who knew every inch of the ground and every tree upon it, became aware that she was close to the Chetworth gate. Suddenly the rattle of an engine and some men's voices caught her ear. The plough, sure enough! The sound of it was becoming common in the country-side.
She betook herself to an old grass-grown walk between yew hedges at the bottom of the Dutch garden, and paced it in a tumult of revolt and pain. Not to go to Chetworth again! not to see Beryl, or any of them! How cruel! how monstrously unjust! 'I shan't obey! why should I? Beryl and I must manage to see each other of course we shall! Girls aren't the slaves they used to be.
Word Of The Day