OSBORN INTERFERES When Grace and Kit had gone a short distance they heard voices and a rattle of sticks in the wood, but the noise got fainter and she imagined the beaters were moving the other way.

Ferrars, who shot at the woodcock, had probably not had time to tell Osborn about his carelessness, and it looked as if nobody else had been posted near the road.

This was something of a relief, but Grace felt anxious.

A gate not far off led to a drive in the wood, and she thought she had heard Osborn's voice.
She kept on the belt of grass, which got narrower, so that the path ran close to the hedge.

On the opposite side, a clump of silver-firs threw a shadow across the road, and a patch of pale-yellow sky shone behind an opening in the trees.