"Ah—then he told you I was here?" She laughed with amusement, and relapsed into self-accusal. "It was worse, much worse! What I told Upton wasn't true. Nothing prevented me—and nobody. I simply forgot. The day was so heavenly—wasn't it? I went off alone, up the mountain, to bathe in a pool in the woods; and I took some books and the dogs; and I forgot everything… . Can you ever forgive me?" She stretched her hands out, but he stood and looked at them, bewildered, as if not believing such a gift could be meant for him, even for the space of a touch.

"A pool in the woods … is it anywhere near here? Could I get to it?" he questioned eagerly.

"Of course you could. I'll take you. It's the divinest place! In weather like this it's better even than books… . But you shall see the books too," she added, suffusing him in her sudden smile.

He reddened slightly, with the flush of convalescence, which leaves the face paler when it goes. "I—that's awfully kind … "

"No. I'm never kind. But I like to share my treasures—sometimes." She continued to look at him, noting with a sort of detached appreciation, as characteristic of her as the outward glow, the good shape of his head with its shock of rumpled brown hair, the breadth and modelling of his forehead, and the strong planting of the nose between his widely set eyes, the gray eyes which sometimes seemed to bring his whole self to their surface, and sometimes to draw it back into an inaccessible retreat, as when she had surprised him over "Kubla Khan" at the Willows. Decidedly, she thought, in saying that she had not gone too far. She was jealous of what she called her treasures; but here was someone with whom they might be shared. Yes, she would let him see the pool… . But when? Her life was always crowded with projects, engagements, fragments of unfinished work; there were always people arriving at Eaglewood, or opportunities to dash off from it (with visitors who had motors), or passionately absorbing things to be dealt with on the spot—as she was dealing with the Weston boy now. Yes, better do it at once, before other things crowded in. It would be the friendliest way of wiping out her forgetfulness… .

"Do you get up early?" she asked. "Do you care about sunrises?"

He coloured again, with pleasure, as it seemed. Her elliptic interrogatory seemed to have no fears for him. "Yes. I guess the pool would be great then," he said.