Page:Wildwildheart00reesiala.pdf/176

coast and their Wairiri friends. They gathered under the shady willows at the back of the stand after the second race—hampers were brought out from the cars, and everybody was very gay and very jolly. Ann, being young and of a naturally happy disposition, couldn’t help enjoying herself. Rodney was on the course. She had caught sight of him in the distance, and perhaps—though she would not admit this to herself—the thought that she might see and speak to him again before the afternoon was over enhanced the radiance of the day. But as the shadows lengthened, and still he did not seek her out, her spirits drooped a little. What was the use of going on thinking in this silly sentimental fashion of a man who had plainly told her that his affection for her was not serious or a lasting one? Yet how could she help thinking of him, she mentally defended herself, seeing that she held his race card in her hands, and by steadily following his tips was amassing quite a little fortune? And her feeling was not that of a stupidly romantic schoolgirl. With a quick surge of passionate resentment she found herself wishing that it were—that it might be the ephemeral, unreal fancy of the jeune fille, instead of this sure and bitter realization that Rodney Marsh was the only man she would ever love in quite this way with every fiber of her being. Her thoughts continually hovered about him. Whom was he with? Had he followed the tips he had given her? and if so how much had he won today? She herself had only invested one pound on each race, and after the sixth event found that she had backed four winners and an outsider, who paid a big dividend for second place.

“How on earth do you do it?” asked Mrs. Ralston.