'Oh, Gordon, these leaves! Look at them with the sun on them! They're like gold. They really are like gold.'
'Fairy gold. You'll be going all Barrie in another moment. As a matter of fact, if you want an exact simile, they're just the colour of tomato soup.'
'Don't be a pig, Gordon! Listen how they rustle. "Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa."'
'Or like one of those American breakfast cereals. Truweet Breakfast Crisps. "Kiddies clamour for their Breakfast Crisps."'
'You are a beast!'
She laughed. They walked on hand in hand, swishing ankle–deep through the leaves and declaiming:
'Thick as the Breakfast Crisps that strow the plates
In Welwyn Garden City!'
It was great fun. Presently they came out of the wooded area. There were plenty of people abroad now, but not many cars if you kept away from the main roads. Sometimes they heard church bells ringing and made detours to avoid the churchgoers. They began to pass through straggling villages on whose outskirts pseudo–Tudor villas stood sniffishly apart, amid their garages, their laurel shrubberies and their raw–looking lawns. And Gordon had some fun railing against the villas and the godless civilization of which they were part—a civilization of stockbrokers and their lip– sticked wives, of golf, whisky, ouija–boards, and Aberdeen terriers called Jock. So they walked another four miles or so, talking and frequently quarrelling. A few gauzy clouds were drifting across the sky, but there was hardly a breath of wind.
They were growing rather footsore and more and more hungry. Of its own accord the conversation began to turn upon food. Neither of them had a watch, but when they passed through a village they saw that the pubs were open, so that it must be after twelve o'clock. They hesitated outside a rather low–looking pub called the Bird in Hand. Gordon was for going in; privately he reflected that in a pub like that your bread and cheese and beer would cost you a bob at the very most. But Rosemary said that it was a nasty–looking place, which indeed it was, and they went on, hoping to find a pleasanter pub at the other end of the village. They had visions of a cosy bar–parlour, with an oak settle and perhaps a stuffed pike in a glass case on the wall.
But there were no more pubs in the village, and presently they were in open country again, with no houses in sight and not even any signposts. Gordon and Rosemary began to be alarmed. At two the pubs would shut, and then there would be no food to be had, except perhaps a packet of biscuits from some village sweetshop. At this thought a ravening hunger took possession of them. They toiled exhaustedly up an enormous hill, hoping to find a village on the other side. There was no village, but far below a dark green river wound, with what seemed quite like a large town scattered along its edge and a grey bridge crossing it. They did not even know what river it was—it was the Thames, of course.
'Thank God!' said Gordon. 'There must be plenty of pubs down there. We'd better take the first one we can find.'
'Yes, do let's. I'm starving.'
But when they neared the town it seemed strangely quiet. Gordon wondered whether the people were all at church or eating their Sunday dinners, until he realized that the place was quite deserted. It was Crickham–on–Thames, one of those riverside towns which live for the boating season and go into hibernation for the rest of the year. It straggled along the bank for a mile or more, and it consisted entirely of boat–houses and bungalows, all of them shut up and empty. There were no signs of life anywhere. At last, however, they came upon a fat, aloof, red–nosed man, with a ragged moustache, sitting on a camp–stool beside a jar of beer on the towpath. He was fishing with a twenty–foot roach pole, while on the smooth green water two swans circled about his float, trying to steal his bait as often as he pulled it up.
'Can you tell us where we can get something to eat?' said Gordon.
The fat man seemed to have been expecting this question and to derive a sort of private pleasure from it. He answered without looking at Gordon.
'YOU won't get nothing to eat. Not here you won't,' he said.
'But dash it! Do you mean to say there isn't a pub in the whole place? We've walked all the way from Farnham Common.'
The fat man sniffed and seemed to reflect, still keeping his eye on the float. 'I dessay you might try the Ravenscroft Hotel,' he said. 'About half a mile along, that is. I dessay they'd give you something; that is, they would if they was open.'
'But ARE they open?'
'They might be and they might not,' said the fat man comfortably.
'And can you tell us what time it is?' said Rosemary.
'It's jest gone ten parse one.'
The two swans followed Gordon and Rosemary a little way along the towpath, evidently expecting to be fed. There did not seem much hope that the Ravenscroft Hotel would be open. The whole place had that desolate flyblown air of pleasure resorts in the off–season. The woodwork of the bungalows was cracking, the white paint was peeling off, the dusty windows showed bare interiors. Even the slot machines that were dotted along the bank were out of order. There seemed to be another bridge at the other end of the town. Gordon swore heartily.
'What bloody fools we were not to go in that pub when we had the chance!'
'Oh, dear! I'm simply STARVING. Had we better turn back, do you think?'
'It's no use, there were no pubs the way we came. We must keep on. I suppose the Ravenscroft Hotel's on the other side of that bridge. If that's a main road there's just a chance it'll be open. Otherwise we're sunk.'
They dragged their way as far as the bridge. They were thoroughly footsore now. But behold! here at last was what they wanted, for just beyond the bridge, down a sort of private road, stood a biggish, smartish hotel, its back lawns running down to the river. It was obviously open. Gordon and Rosemary started eagerly towards it, and then paused, daunted.
'It looks frightfully expensive,' said Rosemary.
It did look expensive. It was a vulgar pretentious place, all gilt and white paint—one of those hotels which have overcharging and bad service written on every brick. Beside the drive, commanding the road, a snobbish board announced in gilt lettering:
THE RAVENSCROFT HOTEL
OPEN TO NON–RESIDENTS
LUNCHEONS–TEAS–DINNERS
DANCE HALL AND TENNIS COURTS
PARTIES CATERED FOR
Two gleaming two–seater cars were parked in the drive. Gordon quailed. The money in his pocket seemed to shrink to nothing, this was the very opposite to the cosy pub they had been looking for. But he was very hungry. Rosemary tweaked at his arm.
'It looks a beastly place. I vote we go on.'
'But we've got to get some food. It's our last chance. We shan't find another pub.'
'The food's always so disgusting in these places. Beastly cold beef that tastes as if it had been saved up from last year. And they charge you the earth for it.'