The adulteress

His glance swept over me fleetingly. He looked for a few seconds at James and that look of cold implacable hatred in his eyes made me very uneasy.

He turned and went.

Jean-Louis shook his head. "That boy should be sent away to school," he said.

After the haymaking Lottie's nanny developed a bad cold which turned to bronchitis. We missed her very much because she was an extremely efficient young woman. I did not like to leave Lottie to the servants and took over the care of her myself.

It was James who suggested that I should have some temporary help. I soon understood why.

"Hetty Hassock would like to come over and give you a hand with Lottie," he said. "I think you would find her very useful."

I was amused because I knew now that James was interested in Hetty. Jean-Louis and I had discussed the matter often. We were both very fond of James; he was no ordinary agent for not only did he take a keen interest in the estate, the management of which he did extremely well, but he was an amusing companion; meal times were enlivened by his conversation; moreover, I had noticed that he took over, most unobtrusively, much of the work which he thought would tire Jean-Louis.

Hetty came and I did find her a delightful young woman and during the time she stayed with me I learned quite a lot about her. She was not one to give her confidences easily, being somewhat introspective, I imagined, but in due course we became good friends.

She told me it had not been easy to adjust to life at the farm, coming to it, as she had, when she was grown up.

"Of course," she explained, "I used to pay visits during the summer. I always enjoyed the haymaking and the Harvest Home, but I did find I had little in common with my brothers and sisters."

I understood why. Tom Hassock was quite a good farmer but he had a large family to feed. It was for this reason that his wife's sister had taken Hetty and brought her up, educating her and giving her a different life from that of her brothers and sisters.

"Aunt Emily had married well," Hetty told me, "a tradesman with a mercer's business in Cheapside, and they had lived over the shop." She and her husband had been childless and for this reason soon after Hetty was born they had asked if they could take the burden of a new child off the already pressed Hassocks and bring her up as their own. The farmer and his wife had seen this as a good opportunity for the daughter which must not be missed. So at the age of two Hetty had gone to London.

She had gone to a school in London and had been fed and clothed in a manner which by the Hassock family was considered affluent.

"It became a little upsetting going home sometimes," she said. "I had so much more than they had. It didn't seem fair. They were always so proud of me, though. Particularly my father. He used to say: 'Hetty is the lady in the family.' '

"Well, that should have made you proud. You mustn't feel ashamed because you were the fortunate one and made use of your good fortune," I said.

"Oh, I don't. But sometimes I think they expect too much of me. When my aunt died I stayed on with my uncle; but after he died his nephew took over the business ... and he had a wife and four children. There was no room for me so I came home."

"I see. So now you have to adjust to being a farmer's daughter."

"It's difficult. I'm really glad to get away from home for a while."

"Oh, you'll settle down," I said. "And you might marry."

She flushed slightly and lowered her gaze.

Of course she would, I thought. It was obvious that James felt very seriously about her.

The summer had almost gone and autumn was in the air. It was a good harvest that year and everyone was delighted. Preparations for harvest festival went on with great enthusiasm. The church was decorated with all the products of the earth from cabbages to dahlias and chrysanthemums. But the great occasion was in fact the Harvest Home, which would be celebrated on the Saturday before the church festival.

It had been the custom on the estate that the celebration should take place at Clavering Hall, so that all the farmers and the families who lived on the estate could celebrate together. There was a great deal of bustle at the Hall and Dickon threw himself wholeheartedly into the preparations and I think that my mother and Sabrina were especially interested because of Dickon's excitement.

The trouble over the strip of land had not done anything to diminish his interest and he was still riding round with Jean-Louis or James Fenton and going to the estates office to learn about inside management.

James was very pleased about it and made it clear that he had not liked what had to be done one little bit. Dickon shrugged it aside and I thought that he had forgotten all about it.