Part 11 (2/2)
”Do you like croquet?” Diana asked, and to Alex' disappointment they embarked upon a long, wearisome game. She was not a good player, nor was Barbara, but Cedric surprised them all by the brilliant ease with which he piloted Marie Munroe and himself to victory.
”I say, that's jolly good!” Eric and Noel said, and gazed at their junior with respect.
Alex felt pleased, but rather impatient too, and wished that it were she who was distinguis.h.i.+ng herself.
When they played hide-and-seek, however, her opportunity came. She could run faster than any of the other girls at Liege, and when Diana suggested picking up sides, she added good-naturedly:
”Alex runs much faster than any of us--she'd better be captain for one side, and Noel the other.”
Noel looked as though his own heads.h.i.+p were a matter of course, but Alex felt constrained to say:
”Oh, no, not me--You, Diana.”
”Would you rather not? Very well. Cedric, then. Hurry up and choose your sides, boys. You start, Cedric.”
”I'll have Marie,” said Cedric unhesitatingly, and the little red-haired girl skipped over beside him with undisguised alacrity.
”Noel?”
Noel jerked his head in the direction of Alex.
”You,” he said.
She was immensely surprised and flattered, connecting his choice with the same attraction that had made him sit beside her at lunch, and not with her own reported prowess as a runner.
Cedric's reputation for gallantry suffered somewhat in his next selections, which fell with characteristic common sense on Noel's brother Eric, and upon Barbara. Noel took Sadie and Diana, and they drew lots for Archie.
The game proved long and exciting, played all over the terrace and shrubbery.
Alex screamed and laughed with the others, and enjoyed herself, although she found time to wish that Barbara were not so stupid and priggish about keeping on her gloves, because old Nurse had said she must, and to wonder very much why Cedric appeared so pleased with the society of red-haired, chattering Marie, whose side he never left.
Presently, as she was looking for somewhere to hide, Noel Cardew joined her.
”Come on with me--I know a place where they'll never find us,” he told her, and led her on tip-toe to where a very small, disused ice-house was half-hidden in a clump of flowering shrubs.
Noel pushed open the door with very little effort, and they crept into the semi-darkness and sat on the floor, pulling the door to behind them.
Noel whispered softly:
”Isn't it cool in here? I _am_ hot.”
”So am I.”
Alex was wondering nervously what she could talk about to interest him, and to make him go on liking her. Evidently he did like her, or he would not have sat next her at lunch and told her about his photography, and afterwards have chosen her for his partner at hide-and-seek.
Alex, though she did not know it, possessed a combination that is utterly fatal to any charm: she was unfeignedly astonished that any one should be attracted by her, and at the same time agonizedly anxious to be liked.
She wanted now, wildly and nervously, to maintain the interest which she thought she had excited in her companion.
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