she said. “You should ha’ put the ladder up for them, you should.”

“Well — I don’t care.”

“Go and do it now — and I’ll go.”

“No, don’t you. Stop an’ see our Maurice, go on, stop an’ see him — then I s’ll be able to tell him.”

She consented in silence. He had her promise she would not go before he returned. She adjusted her dress, found her way to the trough, where she performed her toilet.

Geoffrey wandered round to the upper field. The stacks looked wet in the mist, the hedge was drenched. Mist rose like steam from the grass, and the near hills were veiled almost to a