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.Cassandra gave one look at it and, pulling Mr Tilos with her, rushed into a shop they happened to be passing.‘They’ve some charming hand-woven things in here,’ she said in some confusion.‘Let’s look around, shall we?’Mr Tilos found himself forced to pretend an interest in a wooden loom at which a stout young woman in a blue smock was working.Cassandra went over to a table by the window and began to examine some scarves and lengths of home-spun material, peering out surreptitiously, waiting for the car to pass.When it came by she saw that she had been right, for in it was Mrs Gower and the driver was almost certainly Mr Gay.They went past slowly, but were obviously not stopping in the village.Cassandra was glad of this, for although there was nothing wrong in what she was doing, she thought it better that two respectable inhabitants of Up Callow should not see her walking arm-in-arm with Mr Tilos.She was certain that they had not seen her, because they had been too much interested in each other.How nice for two people of their years to find pleasure in each other’s company, thought Cassandra benevolently.She was glad the weather was nice for their drive.When the coast was clear Cassandra and Mr Tilos managed to slip out without attracting the attention of the woman at the loom.‘I didn’t want to buy anything,’ explained Cassandra, ‘everything is so ruinously expensive, although they’re hand-woven.’‘Yes,’ said Mr Tilos, not wishing to make conversation about an occupation which he considered fit only for peasants.‘Do you not feel tired?’ he asked hopefully.‘No, I’m still full of energy,’ said Cassandra, ‘but it will take us all our time to walk to the car.We’ve quite a long way to go.’‘You know I admire you!’ declared Mr Tilos suddenly.‘Hush! People will hear you,’ said Cassandra in agitation, for his voice was embarrassingly loud.‘I would want all the world to know,’ he declared.‘Don’t be silly,’ said Cassandra firmly, thinking that it wouldn’t matter the whole world knowing as long as the people in Up Callow and thereabouts did not.They walked on, with Mr Tilos preserving a gloomy silence.‘Here’s the car,’ said Cassandra with some relief.‘Adam is putting the picnic basket in.’‘Have you had a nice walk?’ he asked.‘Lovely.Have you had a nice sleep?’‘Yes.But only quite nice.The ground isn’t such a comfortable bed as I thought it would be.But all the same, about twenty more lines of the epic came to me.’‘How lovely,’ she said and smiled to herself as she arranged the rugs in the back of the car.‘Cassandra, what are you smiling at?’ asked Adam, for he had just been telling Mr Tilos about Milton’s three wives and he didn’t see anything particularly amusing about that.‘I don’t know,’ said Cassandra weakly.‘I think it’s just been a funny day.’CHAPTER SIXTEEN‘Endeavouring by a thousand tricks to catchThe cunning, conscious, half-averted glanceOf their regardless charmer … ’‘Mr Tilos seems to have dropped the Marsh-Gibbons,’ said Mrs Wilmot to her husband one morning.‘What did you say, dear?’ The rector looked up from his paper.‘Oh, I was only saying that Mr Tilos seems to have dropped the Marsh-Gibbons,’ said Mrs Wilmot, feeling silly at having to repeat her sentence.‘Well, my dear, I don’t see how you can say that,’ declared the rector.‘It is hardly in the power of a new resident like Mr Tilos to “drop” anyone of such standing as the Marsh-Gibbons.’‘I am expecting Paladin,’ he added, getting up from the table.‘I shall be in my study.’Mrs Wilmot began aimlessly piling the plates together.She was a little depressed this morning but her face brightened and she felt more cheerful when she saw Mr Paladin coming up the drive.Since the night of the Gays’ party she had begun to think of him as ‘dear Edmund’, and was already regarding him as a member of the family.Mrs Wilmot glowed with satisfaction as she imagined for her daughter that future of which she herself had been cheated.It was known that the Bishop thought very highly of Mr Paladin, and it was only a matter of time before he would start out on a brilliant ecclesiastical career.Janie had always been a good girl, and that she should fall in love with someone eminently suitable was only to be expected.Mrs Wilmot liked to think that her good upbringing had had something to do with this.She was a little inclined to forget that Janie was only nineteen, and that Mr Paladin was so far the most eligible suitor, indeed the only suitor of any kind, who had presented himself.In the study the rector was talking to Mr Paladin.His manner was almost that of the genial father-in-law, and yet it was not so marked as to be in any way frightening to a young man; he did not call Mr Paladin ‘my dear boy’, he was merely kinder and more interested than usual.‘Your last week’s sermon was excellent,’ he said, ‘but don’t overwork yourself.Get out into the country sometimes.You can take the afternoon off when you’ve nothing important to do and I hope we’ll see you here for tea sometimes.The children will be home in July.You will see no happier family than ours anywhere.Marriage is a great blessing, and companionship with people of our own age with whom we have tastes in common is a happy preliminary to that state … ’ The rector paced about the room, flinging out stray sentences, while Mr Paladin stood and listened in respectful silence.‘I know what it is to be young,’ continued the rector.‘Yes, I know what it is to be young,’ he repeated, as if Mr Paladin might not believe him.‘We want to be with young people when we are young.Janie is staying with her aunt, but she is coming back tomorrow.I am glad that you have become friends.I hope you will go into the country together now that the weather is so good.Janie is very interested in Nature,’ he added, and then went on hastily to talk of cricket, as if he had said rather more about Janie than he had intended.Mr Paladin now joined in the conversation, which took a more parochial turn, and shortly afterwards went away.Mrs Wilmot watched him out of a bedroom window; he saw her as he was mounting his bicycle, and waved his hand.He rode slowly into the town, smiling to himself, as people in love often do.The inhabitants of Up Callow were now quite used to seeing a smiling Mr Paladin.They smiled too, and there was not a single person who did not think that the young people were admirably suited to each other.Mr Paladin rode on.He knew he would have to write a sermon some time today, but the thought did not trouble him
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