An Unofficial rose

'I'm not a little girl, said Miranda in a tone which left Pe

To recover he said with an even more ponderous air of jocularity, 'And you don't like ponies either?

'Oh, I like them all right, said Miranda, 'but I got bored with riding. I get bored with anything as soon as I know how to do it. I only like doing things I can't do.

Pe

'What can you do?

This disconcerted him. What, after all, could he do? He was a pretty good fast bowler; but he had not been able to display this accomplishment, since although a village cricket team existed, the Peronett family had no dealings with it, and Pe

'In that case you don't like anything. Poor you!

'Oh well, I do like things, of course, said Pe

Then Miranda said, 'Are you going to go to London with Humpo Finch?

'Yes, said Pe

Miranda laughed. 'Why do you laugh?

'Never you mind. She turned suddenly in through a gateway and Pe

Miranda, however, did not go into the church, but began to walk along the path that led through the old part of the churchyard between huge box-like stone tombs, yellow with lichen, adorned with crumbling angel-heads, sunk in ivy and brambles, and tilting crazily in all directions. Beyond them enormous yews, great fissured towers of darkness, flanked the churchyard wall.

Pe

'How many dead people do you know? said Miranda.

Pe

'I know more than twenty, said Miranda. She added, 'Grandfather must know hundreds.

Pe

People one might have known. He guessed where he was going just the moment before, as Miranda halted by it, he read upon a newly cut tomb-stone the name of Steven Peronett.

'Oh, said Pe

'He's not here, said Miranda.

Pe

He said to Miranda. 'I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were coming here. I'll go away at once.

But she said, 'No, don't go. Stay and see the birds.

'The birds? He turned to see that she had opened her bag and brought out another paper bag which was inside it. The paper bag was full of fragments of bread.

In front of the stone the grass was flat, mown over, and nothing marked the extent of the grave. Miranda began to strew the bread in a neat rectangle, of which she first marked out the sides with a trail of pieces, till she had covered with the white fragments an area upon which a boy might have lain down. Then she drew back a little across the grass.

Pe

'Steve loved birds, said Miranda. 'He always used to feed them at Grayhallock. He would ring a bell every morning and the birds would come. And when he was dying he said to me, «Don't bring flowers to my grave. But come sometimes and feed the birds there. I'd like to think that you might do that.

'Ah, gee — said Pe

He felt a sudden grief which was like a kind of joy and for a moment he felt as though he might burst into tears.

Miranda sat down on a long recumbent tomb of plum-coloured marble a little bit away from the grave and Pe

She was wearing green stockings which were pulled up to just above the calf, and her short tartan skirt lay neatly across her legs, just above the knee. Her knees were revealed, bare, white and rounded, between the two garments. Pe