morning the splendid Le Page equipage
arrived at Cow Farm. Splendid it was! A large wagonette, with a stout
supercilious fellow on the box who sniffed at the healthy odours of the
farm and stared haughtily at Mrs. Monk as though she should be ashamed
to be alive. The Coles had provided a small plump "jingle" with a small
plump pony, their regular conveyance; the pony was Bob, and he would not
go up hills unless persuaded with sugar, but Jeremy loved him and
would not have ridden behind any other steed in the whole world. How
contemptuously the big black horses of the wagonette gazed down their
nostrils at Bob, and how superbly Mrs. Le Page, sitting very upright
under her white sunshade, greeted Mrs. Cole!

"Dear Mrs. Cole. Such a hot morning, isn't it? Lovely, of course, but so
hot."

"I'm afraid," Jeremy heard his mother say, "that your carriage will
never get down the Rafiel Lane, Mrs. Le Page. We hoped you'd come in the
dog-cart. Plenty of room..."

Superb to witness the fashion in which Mrs. Le Page gazed at the
dog-cart.

"For all of us?... Dear Mrs. Cole, I scarcely think--And Charlotte's
frock..."

Then Jeremy turned his eyes to Charlotte. She sat under a miniature
sunshade of white silk and lace, a vision of loveliness. She was a
shimmer of white, a little white cloud that had settled for a moment
upon the seat of the carriage to allow the sun to dance upon it, to
caress it with fingers of fire, so to separate it from the rest of the
world for ever as something too precious to be touched. Jeremy had never
seen anything so lovely.

He blushed and scraped his boots the one against the other.

"And this is Jeremy?" said Mrs. Le Page as though she said: "And this is
where you keep your little pigs, Mr. Monk?"

"Yes," said Jeremy, blushing.

"Charlotte, you know Jeremy. You must be friends."

"Yes," said Charlotte, without moving. Then Jeremy tumbled into the
stern gaze of Mr. Le Page who, arrayed as he was in a very smart suit
of the whitest flannels, looked with his black beard and fierce black
eyebrows like a pirate king disguised.

"How are you?" said Mr. Le Page in a deep bass voice.

"Very well, thank you," said Jeremy.

To tell the truth, Mrs. Cole's heart sadly misgave her when she saw
the Le Page family all sitting up so new and so bright in their new and
bright carriage. She thought of the simple preparations that had been
made--the pasties, the saffron buns and the ginger beer; she looked