England -- Fiction; Honeymoons -- Fiction; Love stories; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction
He thrust the string into his jacket pocket, and presently set hand and
foot to the hold that the worn wall afforded. In half a minute he was
astride the coping; next moment he had swung by his hands and let
himself go on the wall's other side. It was a longer drop than he
expected; it jarred him a little, and his hat tumbled off. As he picked
this up he noticed that the wall on the inside had been newly pointed.
The trees were a good thirty feet from the wall. There would be no
getting back by the way he had come. He must find a gate. Meantime the
little aeroplane's buzzing had grown faint and ceased. But the twine led
him to the tree, as the silken clue led Queen Eleanor to the tower of
Fair Rosamond. The next thing was to climb the tree and bring down the
truant toy.
The park spread smooth and green before him--the green smoothness that
comes only to English grass growing where grass has been these many
years. Quiet trees dotted the smooth greenness--thickening about the
house, whose many chimneys, red and twisted, rose smokeless above the
clustered green. Nothing moved in all the park, where the sun drank the
dew; birds stirred and twittered in the branches--that was all. The
little aeroplane had stopped its buzzing. Edward was moved to thank Fate
that he had not brought Charles. Also he was glad that this trespass of
his had happened so early. He would get down the aeroplane and quietly
go out by the lodge gate. Even if locked, it would be climbable.
The chestnut-tree, however, had to be climbed first. It was easy
enough, though the leaves baffled him a little, so that it was some time
before he saw the desired gleam of metal and canvas among the dappled
foliage. Also, it was not quite easy to get the thing down without
injuring it, and one had to go slowly.
He lowered it, at last, by its string to the ground from the lowest
branch, then moved along a little, hung by his hands, and dropped.
He picked up the toy and turned to go. "Oh!" he said, without meaning
to. And, "I beg your pardon," without quite knowing what for.
Because, as he turned he came face to face with a vision, the last one
would have expected to see in an English park at early day. A girl in a
Burmese coat, red as poppies, with gold-embroidered hem a foot deep. Her
dress was white. Her eyes were dark, her face palely bright, and behind
her dark head a golden-green Japanese umbrella made a great ridged halo.
"I beg your pardon," said Edward again, and understood that it was
because he was, after all, trespassing.
"I should think you did," said the vision, crossly. "What on earth do
you mean by it? How did you get in?"
Edward, standing a little awkwardly with the aeroplane in his hands,
looked toward the wall.
"I came over after this," he said. "I'm very sorry. I was flying the
thing and it stuck in the tree. If you'll tell me the way to the lodge,
I'll--I hope I didn't scare you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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