He smiled with the words, and Anne suffered herself to be persuaded. Certainly the shade of the beech trees was infinitely preferable to the glare of the dusty roads, and the slumberous atmosphere made her feel undeniably languorous. She sat down therefore on the roots of a tree, still watching the dragon-flies flitting above the water. Nap stripped off his coat and made it into a cushion. "Lean back on this. Yes, really. I'm thankful for the excuse to go without it. How is that? Comfortable?" She thanked him with a smile. "I mustn't go to sleep." "Why not?" said Nap. "There is nothing to disturb you. I'm going back to the inn to order tea before we start." He was off with the words with that free, agile gait of his that always made her think of some wild creature of the woods. She leaned back with a sense of complete well-being and closed her eyes.... When she opened them again it was with a guilty feeling of having been asleep at a critical juncture. With a start she sat up and looked around her. The sun-rays were still slanting through the wood, but dully, as though they shone through a sheet of smoked glass. The stillness was intense. A sharp sense of nervousness pricked her. There seemed to be something ominous in the atmosphere; or was it only in her own heart that it existed? And where was Nap? Surely he had been gone for a very long time! She rose stiffly and picked up his coat. At the same instant a shrill whistle sounded through the wood, and in a moment she saw him coming swiftly towards her. Quietly she moved to meet him. He began to speak before he reached her. "I was afraid you would be tired of waiting and wander about till you got frightened and lost yourself. Do you ever have hysterics?" "Never," said Anne firmly. He took his coat and began to wriggle into it, surveying her meantime with a smile half-speculative, half-rueful. "Well, that's a weight off my mind, anyway," he remarked at length. "For I have a staggering piece of news for you which I hardly dare to impart. Oh, it's no good looking at your watch. It's hopelessly late, nearly six o'clock, and in any case I can't get you home to-night. There's no petrol." "Nap!" Anne's voice was a curious compound of consternation and relief. Somehow--doubtless it was the effect of thunder in the atmosphere--she had expected something in the nature of tragedy.