"Oh, no, I have had a very good tea," she answered calmly, "but we shall be cold if we sit here much longer." He went into the lane and looked up and down. Then he returned again. "I wonder if the kind old lady would let you sit in her parlour while I go and reconnoitre?" he suggested. "We might go off together somewhere and get some dinner, while I station a sentry here to warn Baines where to find us? I am afraid we are a good way from anything in the way of food, but I may as well inquire." This was agreed upon, and Virgie settled herself in a tiny parlour, full of furniture, while Gerald disappeared. She kept her ears strained for the humming of the car, but no such sound broke the pastoral silence of the remote spot. She began to wonder what they really would do should the car have broken down, for she knew that her own powers of walking were very limited, in spite of her immensely improved health. Half an hour passed slowly, and then Gerald returned. "There is apparently an inn of sorts at Dilvington, but a very poor one. I suppose they could give some fried ham and potatoes. That would be better than nothing, wouldn't it?" "How far is it?" He studied the map. "Inside a mile." "I think I can do that if we walk slowly." He looked taken aback. "I say! I forgot how little you can walk!" "Oh, I can walk a mile, but I could not do much more." "No, by Jove, I suppose you could not. I hope I am not going to knock you up. What an ass I was to trouble about Ferris!" She smiled bravely, and said it would be all right. The weather was lovely. Gerald laughed uncomfortably. A flurry of rain was coming up slowly from the southwest, across the heave of the downs. They left word at the custodian's house and also at the forge, as to the direction they had taken, and walked off towards Dilvington. Virgie came along quite bravely, but before they reached the little roadside "public" the rain had begun to fall. Gerald ordered such food as the place afforded, and they were taken into a small and stuffy parlour, with a short, horsehair sofa, upon which the lady could rest. "By the time we have eaten something, the car is bound to catch us up," he asserted cheerfully. The meal took long to prepare, and was, to say the least of it, inadequate when it arrived. Hunger, however, compelled them to eat, and almost to enjoy it. By the time they had done, it was considerably later than Gerald had foreseen. In Virgie's society time had a knack of eluding him. With a hurried glance at his watch he sprang up and went out to inquire about horses. He came back in a bustle. "They have only one horse, and she has been out all day, and is tired." said he, "but they think she can take us as far as Fittleworth, where we can catch a train to Petworth at 9.20. We should be able to hire a car there, and get back to Worthing or, if we can't, there is a first rate inn at Petworth. No trains later than about 9.30."