‘Isn’t it better?’ said Tarrant,
drawing slightly nearer to her.
‘Of course it is.’
‘I used to know thousands of verses by heart.’
‘Did you ever write any?’
’Half-a-dozen epics or so, when I was about
seventeen. Yet, I don’t come of a poetical
family. My father—’
He stopped abruptly, looked into Nancy’s face
with a smile, and said in a tone of playfulness:
‘Do you remember asking me whether I had anything
to do with—’
Nancy, flushing over all her features, exclaimed,
’Don’t! please don’t! I’m
ashamed of myself!’
’I didn’t like it. But we know each
other better now. You were quite right.
That was how my grandfather made his money. My
father, I believe, got through most of it, and gave
no particular thought to me. His mother—the
old lady whom you know—had plenty of her
own—to be mine, she tells me, some day.
Do you wish to be forgiven for hurting my pride?’
he added.
‘I don’t know what made me say such a
thing—’
She faltered the words; she felt her will subdued.
Tarrant reached a hand, and took one of hers, and
kissed it; then allowed her to draw it away.
‘Now will you give me another blackberry?’
The girl was trembling; a light shone in her eyes.
She offered the leaf with fruit in it; Tarrant, whilst
choosing, touched the blue veins of her wrist with
his lips.
‘What are you going to do?’ she asked
presently. ’I mean, what do you aim at
in life?’
’Enjoyment. Why should I trouble about
anything else. I should be content if life were
all like this: to look at a beautiful face, and
listen to a voice that charms me, and touch a hand
that makes me thrill with such pleasure as I never
knew.’
‘It’s waste of time.’
’Oh, never time was spent so well! Look
at me again like that— with the eyes half-closed,
and the lips half-mocking. Oh, the exquisite
lips! If I might—if I might—’
He did not stir from his posture of languid ease,
but Nancy, with a quick movement, drew a little away
from him, then rose.
‘It’s time to go back,’ she said
absently.
‘No, no; not yet. Let me look at you for
a few minutes more!’
She began to walk slowly, head bent.
’Well then, to-morrow, or the day after.
The place will be just as beautiful, and you even
more. The sea-air makes you lovelier from day
to day.’
Nancy looked back for an instant. Tarrant followed,
and in the deep leafy way he again helped her to pass
the briers. But their hands never touched, and
the silence was unbroken until they had issued into
the open lane.
The lodgings were taken for three weeks, and more
than half the time had now elapsed.
