Pam and the Countess

by E. E. Cowper

"You were just off. I never saw anything so lovely as Messenger, just leaning over, and spinning along, with the dinghy streaming behind. It was no good then, of course, so I just went back through the gorse ridge and came down the usual way."

"Do you mean to say we were sailing when you first saw us, Pam?" said Christobel, in a shocked voice.

"Sailing, yes--streaking along awfully fast. Have some bread, Addie?"

"But, my dear girl, we were on the shore when we first saw you," persisted Christobel. "We called and shouted till we were afraid of attracting public attention and being had up for nuisances."

"Did you see Pam then, dear?" asked Mrs. Romilly.

"See her, of course, Mummy, but she wouldn't answer. We called--we waved--we were on shore waiting by the dinghy, wondering why on earth she was so late. Then we saw her come to the cliff edge and look down at us. Addie made an awful noise, but she never answered. She just seemed to be staring straight at us. At last we couldn't wait any longer and we put off to the yawl. She watched us reach the yawl and then she turned away and went off. That's what we saw."

"How very odd," said Mrs. Romilly uncertainly. "Tell them just what happened to you, darling."

"I went up the cliff to the top," Pamela answered, speaking rather quickly, "then I thought I'd just go to Champles and fetch a few eggs, as it was easy to carry them by the boat. And coming away from Champles I went round above the church, because it was so lovely--and there was a most awful bother going on--Crow, you know where Mr. Badger has all those sheep penned, and the field where the mare and the foal are in with those calves. Well, all the sheep were out--hundreds--the whole place was covered, the mare had got into the cornfield where the young corn is just coming up green--and the calves had gone. I started to get the mare out, it took ages; then I saw the calves had gone into the field that's nearly hay. It was particularly trying for Mr. Badger, because I knew he would be at Salterne market to-day and not back. Everyone else was gone home, of course. I got the mare back, and the calves, and some of the sheep. It took ages and ages; when I got to the cliff edge there was Messenger sailing away. Certainly I didn't blame Addie for a second. I only went to look on the off-chance of her being still in the creek--it was very late."

Adrian made no remark from first to last. He hardly appeared to listen, but ate his supper in absorbed silence. Frankly, he did not believe a word of the story, but he did not know what to think. How his sister could dare to assert that they never saw her, and that the yawl was on her way home, was past understanding.

Mrs. Romilly had come to the conclusion--from Adrian's manner and Pam's nervousness--that there had been some tiff on board, and the separation was due to disagreement. She changed the subject, and peace prevailed on the surface.