"Plague take it! Always the way! Just the very afternoon when I was most set on going!"
"Why this afternoon?" asked Winnie. Each change in the atmosphere affected her fragile frame, and she was full of aches from head to foot. The soft eyes looked out from dark rings of pain; and a thick shawl could not keep her warm. The two were alone.
"Why? I like that! Anything to get away from this beastly hole. Nothing to do, and nobody to see! That's why."
"But why to-day particularly?"
"Oh, because—because there's a tea-party. You needn't tell mother. She only bothers."
"A tea-party where?"
"Some people I've got to know. Doesn't matter who. You don't know one from another, always mewed up here. I can't think how you put up with it. The life would drive me crazy. Well, I don't mind if I tell, only you're not to blab." Since Jane could not escape, she felt the need for a confidante. "It's at the Sparks'—Mr. Andrew Sparks and his wife. They've got a dairy, and the Parkinses are their cousins. That's how I've got to know them."
"You said there was a young Parkins."
Jane giggled.
"Well, so there is. And a young Mr. Jones. I shouldn't wonder if they'd both be there."