“Do you?” she answered impudently. “Then I’ll play from memory.”
“You ought not to play from memory ... at your age ...” he protested.
Nevertheless she did so, and played better than she had ever played at her practices. It was partly the ecstasy of manipulating a splendid instrument, partly a reckless desire to defy and confute this old man.
“H’m ...” he said, when she had finished. He bore her no malice for her carelessness or impudence, he simply judged her fairly, totted up her marks, and discovered them to be higher than the rest.... Accordingly he adjudged her the winner. He looked neither pleased nor sorry.
Catherine decided that he was utterly soulless....
§ 4
On a certain Monday morning Catherine and Helen took a day off from school, and went picnicking in Epping Forest. Helen’s brother George was with them, and also a friend of the latter’s, one Bert, who took over the financial management of the outing with marked efficiency, but was otherwise vague and indeterminate. George was a moderately good-looking fellow of nineteen, clever in a restricted kind of way, and very entertaining when the mood was upon him. He worked for a City firm of accountants, and was taking his annual fortnight’s holiday.
It was very pleasant to be strolling up the hill leading to High Beech at ten o’clock on a fresh April morning. The party inevitably split up into couples. Bert was walking on in front with Helen; George and Catherine formed up the rear. There was a wonderful atmosphere of serenity over everything: not a soul was about save themselves; the hotels and refreshment châteaux seemed scarcely to have wakened out of their winter’s sleep. And overhead the sky was pure blue.... Up the steep, gritty road they trudged, and in the hearts of each of them something seemed to be singing: “We are going to have a glorious day.”
Bert was saying to Helen: “Yes, of course they’re very nice and comfortable and all that, I know, but they fairly eat up the petrol.... Can’t possibly run them on less than ...”
“Indeed?” said Helen, sympathetically.