III
After luncheon Roddy said:
"Miss Beaminster, come for a walk?"
"A little way," she said, looking at him with her eyes in that straight direct way that she had.
"She must know," said Roddy to himself, "that I'm going to do it now. They all know. It's awful!"
Some of the others had gathered together under a great oak that shaded the central lawn, and now as he climbed the hill with his capture he felt that from beneath that tree many eyes watched them.
They did not go very far. At the top of the hill, above the little wood and the gardens and the house, there was a grassy hollow, and under this grassy hollow a great field of wheat, a sheet of red-gold with sudden waves and ripples in it as though some hand were shaking it, ran down to the valley.
"Let's stop here," Rachel said. "I was out all this morning with Nita Raseley and it's too hot for any exertion whatever."
A tree shaded them and they sat down and watched corn.