"There!" he said proudly, pointing to a cricket pitch beautifully cut and marked with a crease of dazzling white. "Doesn't that look jolly?"
"Heavenly," she said. "You must ask someone up to-morrow. You can get quite good practice here with these deep banks all round."
"Yes, I shall make a lot of runs this season," said Jeremy airily. "But, apart from practice, don't you FEEL how jolly and summery a cricket pitch makes everything?"
Mrs Jeremy took a deep breath. "Yes, there's nothing like a bucket of whitening to make you think of summer."
"I'm glad you think so too," said Jeremy with an air of relief, "because I upset the bucket on the way back to the stables—just underneath the pergola. It ought to bring the roses on like anything."
AN INLAND VOYAGE
Thomas took a day off last Monday in order to play golf with me. For that day the Admiralty had to get along without Thomas. I tremble to think what would have happened if war had broken out on Monday. Could a Thomasless Admiralty have coped with it? I trow not. Even as it was, battleships grounded, crews mutinied, and several awkward questions in the House of Commons had to be postponed till Tuesday.
Something—some premonition of this, no doubt—seemed to be weighing on him all day.
"Rotten weather," he growled, as he came up the steps of the club.
"I'm very sorry," I said. "I keep on complaining to the secretary about it. He does his best."