I consent to take you
out; I don't mind owning you for my missus. Children, come and admire
Auntie Jan."

Jan dutifully delivered a card at the vicarage, and the nursery party
left her to walk up the Manor drive alone. Lady Mary was in, and pleased
to see her, but she only stayed a quarter of an hour, because Meg had
made her promise to meet them again in the village. They were to have
tea in the garden with the children and make it a little festival.

What a funny little thing Meg was, she thought as she strolled down the
drive under the splendid beeches. So determined to have her own way in
small things, such an incarnation of self-sacrifice in big ones.

A man was standing just outside the great gates in a patch of black
shade thrown by a holly-tree in the lodge garden. Jan was long-sighted,
and something in the figure and its pose caused her to stop suddenly. He
wore the usual grey summer suit and a straw hat. Yet he reminded her of
somebody, but him she had always seen in a topee, out of doors.

Of course it was only a resemblance--but what was he waiting there for?

He moved out from the patch of shade and looked up the drive through the
open gates. He took off his hat and waved it, and came quickly towards
her.

"I couldn't wait any longer," he said. "I won't be the least bit of a
nuisance. I've come to fish, and I'm staying at 'The Green Hart'.... And
how are you?"

She could never make it out, when she thought it over afterwards, but
Jan found herself standing with both her hands in his and her beautiful
black parasol tumbled unheeded in the dust.

"I happened to meet the children and Miss Morton, and they asked me to
tell you they've gone home. They also invited me to tea."

"So do I," said Jan.

"I should hardly have known Tony," he continued; "he looks capital. And
as for little Fay--she's a picture, but she always was."

"Did they know you?"

"_Did_ they know me!"

"Were they awfully pleased?"

"They were ever so jolly; even Tony shouted."

At the lodge they met the Squire. Jan introduced Peter and explained
that he had just come down for a few days' fishing and was staying at
"The Green Hart." The Squire proffered advice as to the best flies and a
warning that he must not hope for much sport. The Amber was a difficult
river, very; and variable; and it had been a particularly dry June.

Peter bore up under this depressing intelligence and he and Jan walked
on through warm, scented lanes