“Yes, darling, you know we do every year.”
“So we do.”
“You couldn't stay down till then?”
“Not possibly, darling.
You see if I miss one lecture I get right behind and can't follow the next.
Besides I am not mad keen to see the hounds.”
“Ben was asking if we'd let John go out.”
“Oh, he's far too young.”
“Not to hunt.
But I thought he might bring his pony to the meet and ride with them to the first covert.
He'd love it so.”
“Is it quite safe?”
“Oh, yes, surely?”
“Bless his heart, I wish I could be here to see him.”
“Do change your mind.”
“Oh no, that's quite out of question.
Don't make a thing about it, Tony.”
That was when she first arrived; later everything got better.
Jock was there that week-end, also Allan and Marjorie and another married couple whom Tony had known all his life.
Brenda had arranged the party for him and he enjoyed it.
He and Allan went out with rook rifles and shot rabbits in the twilight; after dinner the four men played billiard fives while one wife watched.
“The old boy's happy as a lark,” said Brenda to Marjorie. “He's settling down wonderfully to the new regime.”
They came in breathless and rather hurried for whisky and soda.
“Tony nearly had one through the window,” said Jock.
That night Tony slept in Guinevere.
“Everything is all right, isn't it,” he said once.
“Yes of course, darling.”
“I get depressed down here all alone and imagine things.”
“You aren't to brood, Tony.
You know that's one of the things that aren't allowed.”
“I won't brood any more,” said Tony.
Next day Brenda came to church with him.
She had decided to devote the week-end wholly to him; it would be the last for some time.
“And how are the abstruse sciences, Lady Brenda?”
“Absorbing.”
“We shall all be coming to you for advice about our overdraft.”
“Ha, ha.”
“And how's Thunderclap?” asked Miss Tendril.
“I'm taking her out hunting on Wednesday,” said John.
He had forgotten Princess Abdul Akbar in the excitement of the coming meet.
“Please God make there be a good scent.
Please God make me see the kill.
Please God don't let me do anything wrong.
God bless Ben and Thunderclap.
Please God make me jump an enormous great oxer,” he had kept repeating throughout the service.
Brenda did the round with Tony of cottages and hot houses; she helped him choose his button-hole.
Tony was in high spirits at luncheon.
Brenda had begun to forget how amusing he could be.
Afterwards he changed into other clothes and went with Jock to play golf.
They stayed some time at the club house.