This was not to be. While the birds were being picked up after that drive, she learnt, to her dismay, that the next one would take place from the same butts.
The wait between these two drives was interminable. Lord Alfred Sprott seemed to have come to the end of his witticisms and sat on his shooting-stick in a gloomy silence. Jane ventured one or two remarks, but they were not well received. She gathered that Lord Alfred had been shooting badly, and this had affected his spirits. She became more and more unhappy and shook all over with cold.
‘I expect I shall be very ill after this,’ she thought. ‘I shall probably die, after lingering for some weeks; then perhaps they will be sorry.’ And tears of self-pity and boredom welled up in her eyes.
When the drive was over, they all began to walk towards the hut where luncheon was prepared. They were now obliged to keep in a straight line with each other, in order to put up game for the men, who carried their guns and let them off from time to time.
‘Keep up please, Miss Dacre. Keep in line, please, or you’ll be shot, you know.’
Jane thought that it seemed almost uncivilized to threaten an acquaintance that she must keep up or be shot, but she said nothing and struggled, fairly successfully, not to be left behind. As the result of this further misery one tiny bird was added to the bag.
8
Nothing in this world lasts for ever. The longest morning Jane could remember was at an end and the party had assembled in a little hut for luncheon. A good fire burnt in one corner and a smell of food and peat smoke created a friendly atmosphere. Jane felt happier, especially when she saw that Sally and Albert were seated on the floor in front of the fire.
Albert looked particularly alluring in an orange crêpe-de-chine shirt open at the neck, and a pair of orange-and-brown tartan trousers, tight to the knees and very baggy round the ankles. Under one arm he carried an old-fashioned telescope of black leather heavily mounted in brass, with which, he said, when asked why he had brought it, to view the quarry. He and Lord Alfred greeted each other with unconcealed disgust; they had been at Eton and Oxford together.
Luncheon was rather a silent meal. There was not nearly enough food to go round, and everyone was busy trying to take a little more than his or her share and then to eat it quickly for fear the others should notice. (The admiral choked rather badly from trying to save time by drinking with his mouth full. Lady Prague and General Murgatroyd thumped him on the back and made him look at the ceiling, after which he recovered.) Most of the baskets in which the food was packed seemed to contain a vast quantity of apples which nobody ate at all. Some very promising-looking packages were full of Petit-Beurre biscuits or dry bread, and the scarcity of food was rendered all the more tantalizing by the fact that what there was of it was quite excellent. The thermos flask which should have contained coffee proved to be empty.
Lady Prague and Lord Alfred carried on a desultory conversation about their mutual relations whose name appeared to be legion.
‘I hear Buzzy has sold all his hunters.’
‘Yes, I heard. An absolute tragedy, you know. But I’m afraid it’s …’
‘Yes, that’s what my mother says. I don’t know, though, really why it should be.’
‘Well, my dear, every reason if you come to think of it. But what does Eileen say about all this – ?’
‘Haven’t you heard?’
‘No – what?’
‘Eileen is staying down at Rose Dean.’
‘No! Well, I must say I never, never would have thought it of her; though, mind you, I have always disliked Eileen. But really! Rose Dean – no that is a little too much. Then where is Looey? … (etc., etc.)’ This was so interesting for everybody else.
When everything eatable had been consumed the general marshalled them all out of doors again. Admiral Wenceslaus was very indignant at this and said something to Jane about letting a cove finish his brandy in peace; but even he dared not mutiny and, muttering a few naval expressions, he followed the others out of the hut.
To Jane’s great relief – for she was very tired and stiff – each of the women was now provided with a pony to ride. Albert walked between Jane’s pony and Sally’s. He looked round at the large crowd of people spread out over the moor, the ponies, dogs, and men with guns.
‘We might be early settlers escaping from native tribes,’ he observed. ‘Led through unnatural hardships to civilization and safety by the iron will-power of one man, our beloved and sainted general. Alas, that within sight of help, his noble spirit should have flown. Poor, good old man, he will yet be enshrined in the heart of each one of us for ever.’
‘Please don’t laugh quite so loudly!’ Lady Prague shouted to Jane and Sally, ‘or all the birds will settle.’
‘I wish,’ said Albert, ‘that I could spot an eagle or a stag with my telescope for the darling general to shoot at. He might take a fancy to me if I did. Our present lack of intimacy begins to weigh on my spirits.’
Albert searched the horizon with his telescope, but complained that, being unable to keep one eye shut, he saw nothing.
‘If you ask me, I expect that’s why the admiral rose from the ranks. Having only one eye, anyhow, he probably took prizes for viewing enemy craft quicker and more accurately than his shipmates. “A sail! – A sail! Ahoy!”’ he cried, dancing a sort of hornpipe on the heather.
General Murgatroyd, who was beating his dog, stopped for a moment and asked Alfred Sprott if ‘that fella thought the birds
