‘Minnie, you are the cleverest person. Every time I’ve been here you’ve arrived at exactly this moment.’

‘If you’re as lazy as I am and yet don’t want to miss all the fun, you have to be methodical.’

Sir Randolph, who was still standing with Bob Lilburn, turned to greet them; he came over to take Minnie by the arm. He knew she didn’t care for shooting, though no one could have guessed it from her animated face; he appreciated all the more the fact that she came. Bob Lilburn followed them with Ida as they set off towards the outskirts of the wood. Olivia, noticing that it would be natural now for Ida to stand beside Bob while he was shooting, dropped back and walked with Tommy Farmer and Marcus.

‘So Marcus, you will soon finish school, I suppose. Will you go to University?’

‘I may be going into the Army. It might be more fun. I want to travel and my father thinks he might be able to get me an ADC’s post somewhere – perhaps in Canada, or else in India. I’d rather India myself.’

‘Canada’s good fun,’ said Tommy. ‘My elder brother was ADC to the Governor-General for a bit and he had great fun. Lots of parties. In fact he married his daughter. George did, I mean. The Governor-General’s daughter.’

‘That’s not what I want at all – parties and getting married! I want to explore the unmapped wild and all that sort of thing. A friend of my father’s lives in Tibet, actually lives there – he’s a famous botanist. I could go and see him when the Viceroy goes to Simla in the summer. And climb the Himalayas and go tiger-shooting.’

‘I knew a man who lost an eye pig-sticking in India.’

‘You are a wet blanket. I bet you know a man who died of fever on the Gold Coast.’

‘I do actually. Funny you should mention that.’

Olivia walked beside them in silence, her head bent.

Before long Lionel came up to walk beside her, but as she did not turn her head or in any other way acknowledge his presence he did not speak. At the end of the wood there was a wicket gate leading into the meadow. Lionel held it open for Olivia, and said quietly as she passed through it, ‘Will you stand with me?’

His place having been indicated to him by Sir Randolph, they walked there slowly.

‘I never thought that when I fell in love it would be with the most beautiful woman in the world.’

He had been looking at her with some anxiety, trying to gauge her change of mood, and he spoke spontaneously, because her beauty had struck him anew. Her expression, which had been preoccupied, changed to one of genuine amusement.

‘That’s ridiculous!’

‘Oh I am so glad to see you smiling again.’

‘Lionel, I said something foolish a little while ago, something I shouldn’t have said. Will you forget it?’