‘Brother!’ He turned away sharply, put his hands in his pockets and walked a few steps with head bent along the fence bordering the wood.

Percy Maidment, who was waiting further out in the Park with the boy who had been assistant loader, raised his arm as if he thought Lionel might have failed to notice him.

Olivia, distressed, hesitated by the stile. Her first thought was, he must have had a sister who had died. How could she have been so clumsy?

He had stopped, apparently staring at a fencing post. She approached him.

‘I am so sorry for what I said. I wouldn’t for the world have said anything you wouldn’t like. Will you forgive me?’

He raised his glance from the post to meet hers. Her eyes had tears in them. Unable to look away he said ‘I love you terribly,’ and saw her expression change from concern to astonishment.

‘Sir, Mr Stephens, sir,’ Percy Maidment was trying to attract his attention by a harsh whisper. Lionel raised his arm to show that he had understood. Distant whistles and tapping sounds showed that the beaters were approaching, though still with some way to go. Lionel began to walk slowly towards the place where he was meant to be standing.

‘I’ve been so stupid,’ she said.

He turned, waiting for her to catch up with him.

‘No.’

‘Yes, I have. I’ve been stupid beyond anything. I thought it was just that we liked each other, that we had things in common.’

‘We do, we have.’

‘But it was more than that. I didn’t recognize it.’

‘I shouldn’t have said it. Don’t let it mean that you change, that you avoid me.’

‘It’s wrong to avoid things. Or not recognize things.’ Preoccupied by her effort to understand herself, she slipped her hand into his arm in her old companionable manner. He could not prevent himself from putting his other hand on hers.

‘That was what it was,’ she said slowly. ‘All the time.’

‘Yes, all the time.’ His hand was crushing hers. She hardly noticed.

‘That was what it was,’ she repeated, dazzled by the light which was dawning on her. ‘That is what it is. I love you too.’

The boy from the village standing behind Percy Maidment (it was one of Ellen’s brothers) stared in amazement at these tremendous beings standing dazzling and dazzled before him, speaking in such a truly astonishing manner. There was no question of his not having heard them correctly; they were only a few feet away. In a muddled sort of way it just crossed his mind that they might be reciting their parts in a play, since he knew that sometimes when they had house parties at the Park they went in for amateur theatricals.

Percy Maidment was not interested in what anyone was saying. His only concern was to get the gun he was holding into Lionel’s hands. The whistling and tapping, the cracking of branches and the odd shout, were nearer now. There was the first shout of ‘over’, the first shot from far along the line. Lionel took the gun mechanically, still looking at Olivia. ‘Over on the right. Your bird, sir,’ muttered Percy urgently.