Short of locusts or an earthquake, it's going to be a long job. I
suppose you couldn't hire a trench-mortar and shell it for a couple of
months?"
Apparently Vandy was afraid to trust his voice, for, after swallowing
twice, he recovered the sickle and started to hack savagely at the grass
without another word.
With the utmost deliberation, Berry seated himself upon the flagstones
and, taking out his case, selected a cigarette. With an equally
leisurely air I produced a pipe and tobacco, and began to make ready to
smoke. Our cousins regarded these preparations with an uneasiness which
they ill concealed. Clearly we were not proposing to move. The silence
of awkwardness and frantically working brains settled upon the company.
From time to time Emma and May shifted uncomfortably. As he bent about
his labour, Vandy's eyes bulged more than ever....
Nobby, whom I had forgotten, suddenly reappeared, crawling pleasedly
from beneath a tangled stack of foliage, of which the core appeared to
have been a rhododendron. For a moment he stared at us, as if surprised
at the company we kept. Then his eyes fell upon Vandy.
Enshrined in the swaying grass, the latter's knickerbockers, which had
been generously fashioned out of a material which had been boldly
conceived, presented a back view which was most arresting.
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