IN THE SHADOW
"Fit as a fiddle!" said Giles with labored heartiness. "Barring my fright at the thought of the game. You see, here's this chap D'Arcy—proper demon—one can hardly see the ball, and as for Roberts—oh, I say!— What?"
"Giles," said Virginia severely, "really, I'm ashamed of you; I never would have believed that you could be afraid of anything—and you are getting into a perfect panic!"
"That's the beastly part of it," replied Giles composedly. "It's the suspense; never used to bother me when I was playing right along on the 'varsity; used to like it, rather. It's just that bounder D'Arcy; I've seen him in all of the papers and heard every one singing his praises and all the rest of it."
"No," said Virginia, "it's not that. It's because all of the people whom you've known from childhood are going down to watch you; if it was a strange audience you would not care tuppence; but you will forget about it when you get on the field with the bat in your hands."
Giles stared moodily at his horse's ears. The sun was high and warm; the road wound under the lee of a hill which shut off the breeze; below them ran the river, the bank fringed with its willow copses.
"Let's walk down to the river," said Giles abruptly. "It's too hot to ride, don't you think?"
Virginia glanced at him quickly, then her long lashes swept down to screen the hazel eyes, while her breath came fast. Although she had felt subtly that there were other reasons than the coming match to account for Giles's nervousness, the consciousness had not been formed in her mind.
38
