A man would bring the car down in two days' time at latest,
and afterwards the detested coupe could go back to London. The day was
still young, and after lunch and coffee upon a sunny lawn a boat seemed
indicated. Sir Richmond astonished the doctor by going to his room,
reappearing dressed in tennis flannels and looking very well in them. It
occurred to the doctor as a thing hitherto unnoted that Sir Richmond was
not indifferent to his personal appearance. The doctor had no flannels,
but he had brought a brown holland umbrella lined with green that he had
acquired long ago in Algiers, and this served to give him something of
the riverside quality.
The day was full of sunshine and the river had a Maytime animation. Pink
geraniums, vivid green lawns, gay awnings, bright glass, white paint and
shining metal set the tone of Maidenhead life. At lunch there had been
five or six small tables with quietly affectionate couples who talked in
undertones, a tableful of bright-coloured Jews who talked in overtones,
and a family party from the Midlands, badly smitten with shyness, who
did not talk at all. "A resort, of honeymoon couples," said the doctor,
and then rather knowingly: "Temporary honeymoons, I fancy, in one or two
of the cases."
"Decidedly temporary," said Sir Richmond, considering the company--"in
most of the cases anyhow.
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