He got off, and began to stoop and peer. She sat quiet, her head back, her face upturned, gazing at the stars. It was most beautiful there in the great quiet of the falling night. There was still a dull red line in the sky where the sun had gone down, but from the east a dim curtain was drawing slowly towards them. The road, just at the place they were, curved southwards, and she had the red streak of the sunset on her right and the advancing darkness on her left. They were on the top of a rising in the vast flatness, and it was as if she could see to the ends of the world. The quiet, now that the motor had stopped, was profound.
Christopher came and looked at her. She smiled at him. She was perfectly content and happy.
He didn’t smile back. ‘The petrol’s run out,’ he said.
‘Has it?’ said Catherine placidly. In cars, when petrol ran out, one opened another can of it and ran it in again.
‘There isn’t any more,’ said Christopher. ‘And from the look of this place I should say we were ten miles from anywhere.’
He was overwhelmed. He had meant to have his tank filled up at Salisbury, and in his enchanted condition of happiness had forgotten. Of all the infernal, hopeless fools....
He could only stare at her.
‘Well, what are we going to do?’ she asked, waking up a little to the seriousness of his face.
‘If we were near anywhere——’ he said, looking round.
‘Can’t we go back to those cottages?’