He begged her, not perhaps unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; and she liked him none the better for his directness.
Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits.
As he rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees which made the muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a clothes-line tight.

It ran through the hedge that hid him to the hedge on the other side of the lane.

There it was fastened to a stout stake; and he was fastening it to the lowest rail of a post and rails.

At its tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just at the beginning of the mud-patch.

It was at its tightest.
Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain Baster set out for Colet House at a brisk pace.