vants," I said feebly, and fell to thinking of
Uplands itself, and of how unfortunate it seemed that General Underwood
should be settling so near ourselves. We had noticed the house, indeed,
we could not fail to do so, as it lay a quarter of a mile along the high
road from Pastimes, on the direct route from Escott, which was Mr
Maplestone's village. It was a handsome-looking house, but painfully
prosaic, built of grey stone, unsoftened by creepers, and showing a row
of windows flat and narrow, and extraordinarily high. One could just
imagine the rooms, like so many boxes, and the hall flag-tiled, and the
house full of draughts, for the windows of the principal living-rooms
faced perversely towards the north. I hoped the poor General would
instal a heating system and a generous supply of rugs; but what chiefly
concerned me at the moment was the thought that every time--every single
time--that cross, red-headed man came over to visit his relative, he
must pass our door!

My imagination immediately conjured up half a dozen irritating
encounters. Evelyn returning home on a wet day, bedraggled, _not_ at
her best, toiling along the wet lane, and being splashed with mud by the
wheels of a giant car, from the cushioned seat of which the Squire and
his wife regarded her with lofty disdain. There _was_ a Mrs
Maplestone, and I had drawn a mental picture of her, which I felt sure
was true to life. Small, meek, rather pretty, with big brown eyes which
held a chronic expression of being rather frightened by what had just
gone before, and exceedingly anxious as to what should come next. She
would probably wear handsome furs, and a hat three seasons old.

Encounter number two represented Evelyn in her best hat and coat,
feeling rather spry and pleased with herself, until presently, clinketty
clank, round the bend of the road came the quick, staccato beat of
horses' hoofs. Mr and Mrs Maplestone cantering past in hunting kit,
which at one glimpse killed complacency and substituted disgust for the
poor fripperies of town.

Encounter number three was most obnoxious of all. It represented Evelyn
_solus_ encountering Mr Maplestone _solus_ and on foot. Approaching
him on the unsheltered road, torn by the problem, "Will he bow? Shall
_I_ bow? Will he pretend? Shall I pretend?" moving nearer and nearer,
and in a final moment of discomfort meeting the stare of blank, angry
eyes. Poor man! It must be exhausting to have such a vi