Page:Encounters (Bowen).djvu/37

 "You've got such a dinky hat on!" cried the girl, with naive astonishment.

The others crowded round her.

"You look so different," said Doris, still scrutinising the photograph. "Awfully happy, and prosperous, and—cocksure."

"Perhaps it was the hat!" suggested Millicent.

"Oh, Millicent! No, I'm sure Miss Murcheson was thinking about something nice."

"Or somebody."

"Oh, Doris, you are awful!"

They all giggled, and glanced apprehensively across at her.

She wondered why she was not more offended by them.

"As a matter of fact," she enlightened them, "that was because of daffodils. It just illustrates my point, curiously enough."

They were still absorbed.

"Oh, Miss Murcheson!"

"Miss Murcheson!"

"When was it taken?"

"Last Easter holidays. Nearly a year ago. At Seabrooke. By a friend of mine."