‘Thou art a dreaming thing,

A fever of thyself: think of the Earth.’

Dear me, we are getting on, thought Sophia. We are comparing ourselves with Keats now.

She moved forward to take the path into the valley, but was stopped. A young man was standing in front of her, smiling.

It was an embarrassed smile. She stared at him, puzzled. He had a white bull terrier on a leash, and just behind him stood an elegant dark young girl dressed in pale blue.

‘I say, you aren’t going to hit me this time, are you? Do you remember me? I’m the chap you had the fight with by the pond. I say, by Jove, we were in a temper, weren’t we? I was jolly angry, I can tell you. I went straight home and told my sister all about it. Here she is. This is my sister, Belinha’ (he called it Belinya) ‘and here’s Brandy. Brandy, you old fool, where’s the little bird, eh? Fetch him! Where’s the little bird the naughty doggie killed? Naughty dog! Bad dog, sir!’

While he was saying all this in school-boy English and a foreign, accent, and with an air of extreme heartiness and what Sophia at once described as stupidness, he was looking at her with much embarrassment. He made her think of a certain kind of dog (not the kind in the Vale) which is always pleading. Brandy had much more reserve; and the girl Belinha had silent and effortless dignity.

‘I’m sorry I got in such a rage,’ said Sophia amiably. ‘I’m sure Brandy didn’t do it again.’

‘Oh yes he did, didn’t you, old chap? Coo! I had a jolly fine business with him, I can tell you. He chased a sheep and worried him, and the keeper was furious. Coo! he was wild!’

‘I can imagine it,’ said Sophia.

‘I’ve often seen you about. Once when I was in the car I saw you with two chaps.’

‘Oh yes, my brothers.’

‘I say, where were they at school?’

‘Northgate.’

‘Oh, a jolly awful place! We often played Northgate at footer. Awful blighters, we always thought they were. I was at Handall’s for two years. My name’s Juan Morales.’

Sophia could find nothing to reply but ‘Indeed.’ She wondered why Handall’s, an expensive new school in Uxbridge, had not cured his foreign accent. He seemed a stupid but friendly person. She looked shyly past him at the girl, who smiled at her, and then turned away to gaze at the city in the valley.

‘I say, I wonder if I ever came across your brothers?’

‘You may have. The eldest played goal for the first eleven.’

‘Harry Garden?’

‘Yes.’

‘By Jove, I remember him quite well. A jolly handsome chap.’

‘I’ll tell him you said so.’

‘Ha! ha! I say, that’s jolly good! Yes, do tell him I said so. But I say, won’t you and your brothers come in for a cocktail this evening? Do come. It would be awfully jolly. I’d like to see old Harry Garden again, and meet your younger brother.’