What could be the matter with him?
Why had he been so silly as to take the highway, with its horrid dust and glare, when the field and the lane would have been so much more pleasant?
He felt puzzled and annoyed.

How Mr St Aubyn would have laughed at him could he but have known.

This long tramp along the disagreeable road was the only jarring incident that had befallen him that day.

Well, it would soon be over.

And what a day it had been, after all.