And at last he was here. The door opened, boxes were brought in, voices were heard. She felt suddenly shy before him. Was he taller? Or did he seem so because he was more slender than before and his skin darker? His left arm was in a buckram sling, but he was the same, he was her William still; and yet he was not the same. He wore a beard, which much became him, making the blue of his eyes seem paler than hitherto. When she pressed her cheek against his chest the smell she inhaled through his light coat was different, there was smoke in it and something mineral where she expected the old, familiar trace, which had been redolent of saddle leather, gorse-flower. Separating, she held his poor left hand in both her own and laughed that at last his face was less than two feet away from her own; this beloved face that had never been far from her thoughts now breathed the same air and smiled back at her like an answered call.

Through the hours of the afternoon she could not keep from touching him. As they walked around the garden she leaned a little into his side, when they came in for tea she touched his right arm. A stray crumb on his chin she brushed away with her fingertips. Once they were seated her foot reached out towards him as naturally as a flower turning its face towards the sun.

‘You will forgive me, I think, if I forbear from retailing all the details of my adventures today? Only I fancy I shall have to go over it all tomorrow, for my father and mother, and I would sooner not try your patience.’ At this he grinned widely, for he knew his wife had scant toleration for a thing repeated, and furthermore made little secret of the fact.

Alice’s smile was no less frank.

‘Nothing you say could displease me in the slightest particular. I am so glad to hear your voice at all that I shouldn’t mind if you read aloud to me from a seed catalogue, just to hear it more.’

The tea things cleared away, William stood.

‘I have one or two little souvenirs for you, gathered from abroad. I thought I’d go upstairs now and look them out. Will you come with me?’ He reached out his good hand and she took it and they climbed the stairs.