And they all laughingly started.
And if she could have seen the important letter concerning the new Turkish loan, she would have found it contained a pressing reminder to Bumpus to send down that night certain exquisitely bound books! * * * * * Above all, the young ladies had demanded they should have no servants at their picnic--everything, even the fire, was to be made by themselves.
Jimmy was to drive the donkey-cart, with Lady Betty, to take all the food.

The only thing they permitted was that the pots and pans and the wood for the fire might be sent on.
And they were all so gay and looked so charming and suitably clad, in their rough, short, tweed frocks.
Zara, who walked demurely by Lord Elterton, had never seen anything of the sort.

She felt like a strange, little child at its first party.
Before he had started in the morning Tristram had sent her a note (he could not stand the maid and valet as verbal messengers--it made him laugh too bitterly), it was just a few lines: "You asked me to tell you anything special about our customs, so this is to say, just put on some thick, short, ordinary suit, and mind you have a pair of thick boots." And it was signed "Tancred"-- not "Tristram." She gave a little quiver as she read it, and then asked and found his lordship had already gone down.

She was to breakfast later with the non-shooters.

She would not see him, then, for the entire day.