"This," he said, looking up at her, "is that queer-looking brown thing
with the blue feather that suited you so well. Of course I meant you to
have it too."
Betty felt at once disturbed, and yet, absurdly pleased. "I'm afraid it
was very expensive," she began. And then suddenly Radmore told himself
that after all the poke bonnet had been cheap indeed if the thought of it
could bring such a sparkle into Betty's eyes, and such a vivid while
delicate colour to her cheeks.
There came a day, as a matter of fact the day when Betty wore that
quaint-looking bonnet for the first time, when she did venture to ask
Godfrey what it had cost. He refused to tell her, simply saying that
whatever he had paid he had had the best of the bargain as it had been
worth its weight in gold. Even so it is very unlikely that she will ever
know what that queer little bonnet, which she intends to keep as long as
she lives, really meant to Godfrey Radmore--how it had suddenly made him
feel that here was the young Betty of nine years ago come back, never to
disappear into the mists of time again.
Something else happened in the High Street of that little Sussex town.
Radmore decided that it was Timmy's turn to sit behind, and the boy gave
in with a fairly good grace; though after they had left the houses behind
them and were again moving swiftly between brown hedges, he called out
patronisingly:--"The back of your head looks very nice now, Betty--quite
different to what it looked in that horrid old hat you left in the shop.
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