He drove the car up the dirt road and into a wood through which it led. She set her hair in order. It was combed down from a part in the center now, and her forehead seemed to protrude less than it had with her hair upswept. He thought her more freshly countrified, more Rochester this way, and encouraged it. She ran a finger over her lipstick and pulled up her stockings.

‘You know who I wish was with us?’ she said. The excitement of having arrived at a strange place made her voice sharp and quick and he had to smile at the laughter in it.

‘Who?’ he asked.

‘Fred from next door.’

They hit a bump and flew up off the seat. The road tilted upward suddenly and he shifted to low. Ahead of them the sky hung like a blue cloth at the end of an alley of pines.

‘Why Fred?’

‘He’s nice. We ought to get to know them better.’

The car whined slowly up the grade. He wondered if he ought to mention the garbage pail to her. He had hardly spoken to Fred lately and never again with any intimacy. He saw the blue sky ahead and the garbage pail moved across his horizon, hung there a moment …

The nose of the car tilted forward, and ahead of them, surrounded by an acre of lawn, stood the hotel.

‘Oh, it’s beautiful!’ she said, clutching his arm.

He felt proud. Apparently they had painted the place, for it looked better cared for than five years ago, and a little country clubbish. Across the road from the front porch a large parking-space was marked off. Only a dozen or so cars were parked there. He pulled up beside them.

Buttoning up his shirt, he let her have a moment to do more eagerly what she had done before – pull her stockings tight and fix her hair. She carefully folded up the silk handkerchief which had been tied over her head and then threw it into the back seat anyway. She got out, he behind her.

Outside the car, he reached into the back seat and took out his Panama hat. He unpinned the tissue paper he had it wrapped in, then folded the paper neatly and tucked it into the pocket of his jacket, sticking the two pins in the door upholstery.

‘Hurry up; hurry,’ she whispered as he put on his hat.

Laughing quietly, he chided, ‘Hotel won’t run away.’ Then he leaned inside the car again and pulled out two valises, set them on the ground beside the running board, and stood locking the car.

‘They’re all watching us,’ she whispered gleefully from behind his back.

He picked up the valises and, turning toward the hotel, saw some people sitting on the porch in rockers. She took his arm and they walked across the road and mounted the wide steps of the hotel. He kept a shy smile on his face, a proper smile as the guests looked through them in the usual way. One old man was carving a piece of wood, with a little boy watching close by his knee, and he looked up and nodded pleasantly to them as they crossed the porch and entered the lobby.