‘in the public road.’ What did they care for the public road? But Gudrun was conciliatory.

‘But we weren’t laughing to HURT you,’ she cried, with an uncouth gentleness which made her parents uncomfortable. ‘We were laughing because we’re fond of you.’

‘We’ll walk on in front, if they are SO touchy,’ said Ursula, angry. And in this wise they arrived at Willey Water. The lake was blue and fair, the meadows sloped down in sunshine on one side, the thick dark woods dropped steeply on the other. The little pleasure-launch was fussing out from the shore, twanging its music, crowded with people, flapping its paddles. Near the boat-house was a throng of gaily-dressed persons, small in the distance. And on the high-road, some of the