"She drove me round herself to our gates. Wouldn't come through Scarsmoor!"
They both sighed. They both thought of telling the other something—but on second thoughts refrained.
"I suppose we'd better go to bed. Shall you bathe to-morrow morning?"
"With Ambrose? No, I sha'n't, Wilbraham."
"No more shall I. Good-night, Stabb. You'll—think it over?"
Stabb grunted inarticulately. Roger drew the blind aside for a moment, looked down on Nab Grange, saw a light in one window—and went to bed. The window was, in objective fact (if there be such a thing), Colonel Wenman's. No matter. There nothing is but thinking makes it so. The Colonel was sitting up, writing a persuasive letter to his tailor. He served emotions that he did not feel; it is a not uncommon lot.
Lynborough's passing and repassing to and from his bathing were uninterrupted next morning. Nab Grange seemed wrapped in slumber; only Goodenough saw him, and Goodenough did not think it advisable to interrupt his ordinary avocations. But an air of constraint—even of mystery—marked both Stabb and Roger at breakfast. The cricket match was naturally the topic—though Stabb declared that he took little interest in it and should probably not be there.
"There'll be some lunch, I suppose," said Lynborough carelessly. "You'd better have lunch there—it'd be dull for you all by yourself here, Cromlech."
After apparent consideration Stabb conceded that he might take luncheon on the cricket ground; Roger, as a member of the Fillby team, would, of course, do likewise.
The game was played in a large field, pleasantly surrounded by a belt of trees, and lying behind the Lynborough Arms. Besides Roger and Lynborough, Stillford and Irons represented Fillby. Easthorpe Polytechnic came in full force, save for an umpire. Colonel Wenman, who had walked up with his friends, was pressed into this honorable and responsible service, landlord Dawson officiating at the other end. Lynborough's second gardener, a noted fast bowler, was Fillby's captain; Easthorpe was under the command of a curate who had played several times for his University, although he had not actually achieved his "blue." Easthorpe won the toss and took first innings.