Adders on the Heath

She decided to walk, as the distance to be covered was short and the late September afternoon was clement. She arrived punctually at four o'clock. Roses were still blooming in Miss Calne's small garden, and as Dame Beatrice reached the door, which was at the side of the house, her hostess appeared, holding a bouquet of the aromatic blooms.

'I thought that, as you are staying in the hotel, you might like a few flowers for your room. I've vases I can lend you,' she said, when the greetings were over. 'I'll just put these into water to keep them quite fresh, and then we'll have our tea and (I do hope) a nice long gossip.'

They went into the house and Dame Beatrice was given an armchair and a new magazine while Miss Calne busied herself in the kitchen putting the roses into water and making the tea.

'Now,' said Miss Calne, when two kinds of bread and butter, a plate of scones, some home-made jam, meat paste, some chocolate biscuits and two kinds of cake were on the table, 'what can I do for you, Dame Beatrice?'

'I am not at all certain that you can do anything,' said Dame Beatrice, accepting a slice of brown bread and butter, 'but you may be able to help me. Do you happen to know the name of your predecessor?'

'As president of the Scylla and District Club? Yes, of course I do. He was a Mr Sebastian Campden- Towne and he lives in that big house on the borders of the heath. You can't see the house from here because the trees along that road leading up to the common hide it, but it is over there.' She gestured.

'I have seen the house,' said Dame Beatrice, 'and I was hoping that you would give me Mr Towne's full name.'

'Yes, the club members always called him plain Mr Towne. It reminded me of the Headmaster at my last school. A new member of staff turned up with the double-barrelled name of Finlay-Hopkinson, but the Headmaster ruled, 'Either Finlay or Hopkinson, young fellow, but not both, in my school!' I don't really blame him.'

Dame Beatrice cackled.

'He probably saved the young man from a certain amount of impudence from the boys,' she remarked.

'But why, if I may ask, does Mr Towne come into the picture?' asked Miss Calne.

'Is he a friend of yours? Do you entertain kindly thoughts concerning him?'

'I don't really know a great deal about him. He is an arrogant, self-made man and thinks school-teachers very small beer.'

'Then I will tell you all.' This she proceeded to do. Miss Calne was enthralled and delighted. Without being asked, she promised to keep secret the disclosures.

'I feel most honoured,' she said, 'to be the recipient of these confidences, Dame Beatrice, and, for what it's worth, (probably very little), I can tell you something else. From my front windows, as you can see, I get a very good view of our Lawn.'

'This part of the common, you mean?'

'Oh, no, Dame Beatrice! This kind of open country is known as a Lawn. This one is Gurkha Lawn, so known because Gurkhas were encamped on it during the war. There was an attempt, some time back, to re-name it, but the local people fought for the name and won. I was canvassed and I voted to retain it. The Gurkhas are such gallant little men.'

'And is Ghurkha Lawn germane to the issue?'

'I don't really know, but the men you mentioned-Colnbrook and Bunt, you know-trained on it and were always spying out the lie of the land through field-glasses.'

'Interesting. Did they appear to be looking at anything else, besides the lie of the land?'

'Oh, yes, of course. They studied the ponies, but, then, anybody would, you know. They're so picturesque and charming.'

Dame Beatrice left at five o'clock and returned to the hotel to find Laura enjoying a late but very substantial tea.

'Oh, hullo, Mrs Croc, dear,' said her secretary. 'Did you have a good time? I'll ring for some tea for you.'

'I had a very beautiful tea at Miss Calne's,' said Dame Beatrice, 'and that means I had a good time. Besides, Miss Calne, having had, I suppose, a certain training in such matters, is an observant and reliable witness. How did you enjoy your afternoon?'

'Very much indeed. Having collected the horse, I rode eastward towards Beaulieu and turned off soon after I had passed that little pond with the geese and things. You know, I still can't make head or tail of the local geography. I was certain I was headed towards Lymington, but, by the time I thought of branching off again, I realised that I was coming back on to the common here.'

'Yes, the roads make the shape of a letter Y.'

'Then the maps are wrong! Never mind. I went along on the ambling nag (as somebody says somewhere) until I came to a path which led up and down, and here and there, but always giving a view that I could recognise.'

'Yes?'

'Well, I didn't recognise personages by name, so to speak, but I did spot some lassies all got up regardless, in vests and running shorts, out for a training spin.'

'Indeed?'

'So I rode over, always anxious to push along any kind of physical effort, and stopped to chat with them.'