Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair
Author:Elizabeth Fair [Fair, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2017-03-20T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER XIV
One picnic is very like another, and it is usually the weather that makes or mars the day. When they set out the weather had been perfect, with a gentle breeze to temper the brilliant sunshine, but in Witling wood it was airless and oppressively hot. Everybody remarked on the heat, and from marvelling at it they soon passed on to saying it was unnatural. Only Miss Templer and Leonard, like salamanders, continued to feel that this was the best kind of weather for picnics. Miss Templer sat happily sunning herself, and wishing she was young enough to wear a frock without sleeves or shoulders, while Leonard made his companions feel even hotter by running about and shouting.
âIsnât it hot!â Dossie or Daisy would exclaim at short intervals. But it was not the heat alone that oppressed and fatigued the picnickers. It had been, from the beginning, an ill-assorted party.
Tea was no more uncomfortable than picnic teas always are. They sat on cushions and rugs and spiky bits of bracken, flies fell into the cups, and Leonard upset the milk. Colonel Ashford helped himself to sugar, and then found it was salt; Mr. X knelt on one knee, offering buns with a knightly gesture, and overbalanced on to a plate of tomato sandwiches. The onlookers laughed at these incidents, and at times the talk grew animated, but in spite of talk and laughter everyone seemed glad when tea was over.
In her vague way Miss Templer got on well with most people, and it never occurred to her that her various acquaintances would not mix. Never, that is, until she had assembled them in a spot from which they could not escape; and even then, being an unobservant person, she took a little time to discover that they were not enjoying themselves.
She had known, of course, that Henry disapproved of Daisy Fenn. One could not expect to please Henry anyway, so she had simply hoped for the best. But as the afternoon wore on it gradually became clear, even to Miss Templer, that things were not going well. It was not only the heat, the flies, the minor disasters of spilt milk and squashed sandwiches; it was not only Henry, glowering and looking at his watch. It was something indefinable, but unmistakeable, in the way people looked and spoke. Even the glittering smiles of Dossie and Daisy had lost some of their sparkle.
After tea the party had split up, and instead of splitting up into congenial groups it seemed driven to divide itself awkwardly. Dossie and Daisy had temporarily abandoned Mr. X and were talking to Colonel Ashford, who obviously did not want to talk to anyone. Cassandra was being monopolised by Lukin. Lily had wandered off to pick bluebells, and Mr. X and Leonard were conducting a laborious conversation about railway trains. Miss Templer alone had a companion who suited her; for George was helping her to pack up the remains of the tea. But although she approved of his good manners she wished he would not bother.
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