for us to return to Town.

For a wonder we were all on time, and it was barely eleven o'clock when
Jonah let in the clutch and the Rolls began to move. Daphne sat in
front, and Jill between Berry and me on the back seat. The girls wore
dust-cloaks to save their finery, and two large bandboxes concealed
their respective hats. Berry, Jonah and I wore light overcoats above our
morning-dress, and three tall hats, ironed to perfection, each in his
stiff white hat-box, jostled one another on the mat at our feet. A
smaller box by their side contained three blooming gardenias.

Once clear of London Jonah gave the Rolls her head, and we were soon
floating through the midst of blowing cherry orchards and fragrant hop
gardens, which of the great sun were quick with radiance.

The deeper we plunged into the countryside, the richer this became. Here
was a treasure of woodland, and there a wealth of pasture: grey lichened
walls hoarded a precious park, keeping the timid deer in generous
custody: a silver stream stole between smiling hayfields, crept shadowed
and cool under the dusty road and, beyond, braided a spreading cloth of
golden buttercups, that glowed with a soft brilliancy, such as no
handicraft on earth could coax from the hard heart of costly metal.

Presently we left the main road to sail up a curling hill, and over and
down past a fair steading into a friendly valley, where the cattle stood
drowsy under the shelter of giant chestnut trees, and luxuriant
hawthorns in full blossom filled all the neighbouring air with timely
sweetness. At the bidding of an aged finger-post Jonah turned to the
left, and a moment later the car was scudding up a leafy lane,
high-banked, narrow, and soon so screened and arched with foliage that
in a little we were being swept through a veritable tunnel, seemingly
driven through the living green. More than once the lane changed
direction, but the tunnel held: the ground was rising, but we sailed on,
the steady purr of the engine swelling into a low snarl as we swung to
right and left between the cool green walls....

As we slid through Marvel, the clock of the old grey church showed us
that it was five and twenty to one. We were in good time, for now but a
short seven miles lay between us and the village which we sought.

Jonah settled himself in his seat and prepared to cover the last lap at
an easier pace....

Before we had realized what was happening, it was all over.

The road which