Mrs Bartlett had been listening to all this with a look of ecstatic attention on her sharp but timid little face. Here she gave vent to a series of shrill minute squeaks which expressed a mouse-like merriment, quite unexplained by anything that had been actually said, but easily accounted for by what had not been said. She hastily drank a sip of water and assured Lucia that a crumb of something (she was eating a peach) had stuck in her throat and made her cough. Lucia rose when the peach was finished.

‘Tomorrow we must start working in earnest,’ she said. ‘And to think that I planned to have a little holiday in Tilling! You and Mr Wyse are regular slave drivers, Padre.’

Georgie waited behind that night after the others had gone, and bustled back to the garden-room after seeing them off.

‘My dear, it’s getting too exciting,’ he said. ‘But I wonder if you’re wise to join the committee.’

‘I know what you mean,’ said Lucia, ‘but there really is no reason why I should refuse, because they won’t have Elizabeth. It’s not me, Georgie, who is keeping her out. But perhaps you’re right, and I think tomorrow I’ll send a line to the Padre and say that I am really too busy to be on the committee, and beg him to ask Elizabeth instead. It would be kinder. I can manage the whole thing just as well without being on the committee. She’ll hear all about the entertainment tomorrow morning, and know that she’s not going to be asked to do anything, except supply some fruit.’

‘She knows a good deal about it now,’ said Georgie. ‘She came to tea with me today.’

‘No! I didn’t know you had asked her.’

‘I didn’t,’ said Georgie. ‘She came.’

‘And what did she say about it?’

‘Not very much, but she’s thinking hard what to do. I could see that. I gave her the little sketch I made of the Landgate when we first came down here, and she wants me to send in another picture for the Tilling Art Exhibition. She wants you to send something too.’

‘Certainly she shall have my sketch of Mallards Cottage and the crooked chimney,’ said Lucia. ‘That will show good will. What else did she say?’

‘She’s getting up a jumble sale in aid of the hospital,’ said Georgie. ‘She’s busy, too.’

‘Georgie, that’s copied from us.’

‘Of course it is; she wants to have a show of her own, and I’m sure I don’t wonder. And she knows all about your three dinner parties.’

Lucia nodded. ‘That’s all right then,’ she said. ‘I’ll ask her to the next. We’ll have some duets that night, Georgie. Not bridge I think, for they all say she’s a perfect terror at cards. But it’s time to be kind to her.’

Lucia rose.