"At half-past three," said Serge, "I am going to bathe. Will you join me, Basil?" Haslam assented. "What about you, Lawrie?" "I would like to, only I can't swim." "You can bob up and down in the shallows." "I don't think I will," said Bennett miserably. "Some one," commented Minna, "must stay and look after us. You can't leave three sisters alone." "Fry will protect you from each other," said Serge. "Delighted," rejoined Herbert Fry, with a gallant glance at Minna. Mary said: "This pie is perfectly delicious, Annette. You certainly make pastry better than any of us." "Mary's first remark to-day," said Minna, maliciously. Mary, who had been most amiably disposed, relapsed into silence, then, feeling that she was damping the general cheerfulness, she made another effort and turned to Herbert Fry, and asked him: "I suppose you find our town very dull after London." Herbert Fry replied: "Of course, you know, London is the only place to live in." "It obviously isn't that," said Serge, "since there are millions of people who don't live in it, don't want to live in it, have never been there, and also many millions who have never heard of it." Minna was startled. "Hullo, Serge! You going to defend our horrid, dirty town?" "It doesn't need me to do that. It is quite satisfied with itself. There is really something admirable about its hard, conceited pride. We don't really belong to it, being parasitic. If we did, we should be like the rest, blinding ourselves with a tragic vanity." "Whether I'm a parasite or not," rejoined Minna, "I'm going to get out of it as soon as I can." "So am I," said Haslam. "I'm going to London at the end of the year. I've only been there once, but it is a fine place, and no mistake." "I've been there twice," said Minna. "Mary's been three times. Annette never. Have you been, Bennett?" Bennett was rather taken aback at being drawn into the conversation. He was rather shy of Minna. "No," he said. "I've never been to London. My father has been. I don't suppose I shall ever go. It's such a long way. It must be a wonderful place. I've read a lot about it." "I don't think they have nearly such good music as we have here . . ." Mary had waited very patiently to produce the remark which had been in her mind when she first spoke. She did so with such a flourish that she brought the conversation to an end. Serge wound it up with: "We didn't come into the country to talk of towns." "No," said Minna. "We came to have lunch, and a very good lunch it has been." She rose to her feet with a whimsical right-and-left glance at Haslam and Fry, as though she were hazarding which to take with her. Both sprang up together as she moved away, but Haslam was the quicker and reached her side first. They disappeared into the woods, and Fry returned sulkily to the rest of the party. Annette began to gather the plates, knives and forks to take them down to the water. "Shall I help you?" said Serge.