She glanced towards him brightly, a look of expectant eagerness shining in her eyes. He felt that when the opportunity offered she would not be slow in seizing it, and was unreasonably angry at the thought of his own uncertain prospects, which offered not the faintest hope of his ever being able to hire, much less own, the necessary car in which to scorch across country with anyone. "You say such nice, encouraging things," she observed. "I hope time won't be long in solving the difficulty. It would be horrid to be forced to live here until I am middle-aged." "I'm afraid you will be disappointed when you get out into the world," he said. "Life is pretty much the same elsewhere as here, I take it. It is what we make it--largely." "It is what other people make it for us--largely," she mimicked him. "I could have quite a good time if I was allowed to. When Bobby is home we do contrive a little fun, but it generally ends in disaster. They sent him back to school a week before term commenced once. Agatha managed that. It is always Bobby who reaps the blame; I am punished vicariously." "I call that vindictive," Steele said. "We called it that--and other things." She smiled reminiscently. "It's odd how these little things stick in the memory. I never sew without recalling that exasperating week when I broke needles maliciously six days in succession. I break them occasionally now--in memoriam." He laughed aloud. "I don't fancy Miss Graynor gets it all her own way," he said. Prudence swung her hat by the brim and gazed up at a patch of blue sky between the trees. A little frown puckered her brow. She had ceased to think of Agatha; her mind was intent on the man beside her, the man who was merely a new acquaintance and yet seemed already a tried and sympathetic friend. She liked him. She wished he were staying longer in Wortheton. She wished William had invited him to spend his last evening at Court Heatherleigh. Strictly speaking, courtesy demanded it; but William was not always courteous. She held a well-founded belief that William sought to punish her by this omission; and it pleased her to reflect that she was in a sense getting even with him through the present informal meeting. She promised herself the satisfaction of relating her morning's experience at lunch for his and Agatha's delectation. They so entirely disapproved of such harmless pleasures. "If you've really nothing to do," she said, "let us go for a stroll in the woods. It's lovely there; and we can talk... I feel like a recluse enjoying an unexpected holiday: I want to make the most of it. And I love to talk."