She did not know it, but he had discovered it long ago, and it irritated him. For as long as she continued to shrink from crude facts, and honesty, there could be no real intimacy between them. That he did not quite realise, but he could not help feeling that her extreme delicacy bordered on prudery. A dozen times a day he made her blush. He was at first amused, then slightly impatient.

“Elizabeth, you really can’t be shy with me!”

“I don’t think one need talk about such things,” she said repressively.

That always baffled him; he wished he understood her better, or had the power to break through her reserve. Because she wanted it, he gave her some of his manuscript to read. When she had finished he asked her opinion. After a tiny pause she said,

“It’s very good.”

That drove the artist in him to a frenzy.

“Good? Yes, but what else? How does it strike you?”

“Oh—I like it—quite!”

“You mean you don’t like it. Well, why not?”

“Oh, no, Stephen! Of course I don’t mean that!”

“My dear girl,” he said sharply, “say what you think, for God’s sake, and don’t bother about being polite.”

“But, Stephen, I— It’s only perhaps that I don’t quite understand some of it. And—and sometimes—I expect I’m old-fashioned—isn’t it rather—broad?”

“It’s perfectly straight-forward, if that’s what you mean. What of the style? Do you like it, or not? I shouldn’t ask for your criticism if I didn’t want it, Elizabeth.”

“Oh, the style!” she said, wondering what was the proper thing to say about it. “Yes, that’s very good, I think.”

He seemed to shrug his shoulders, then turned away. She knew that she had failed him, and was wretched.

Nina and her parents came to call. Elizabeth liked Mrs. Trelawney, who was quiet and full of common-sense. Mr. Trelawney did just what his daughter had said he would do. He walked with Stephen round the garden, and said, Charming! in an absent-minded way many times. He offered to send them some cuttings from a rare plant; Elizabeth thanked him, and said that she would love to have them. When the Trelawneys had departed Stephen asked her what on earth she had said that for?

“Well, what else could I say?” she demanded, wide-eyed.

“Why, that you didn’t really understand horticulture, and it would be waste to give his rarities to you.”

She was aghast.

“Stephen! But how rude!”

“No, not a bit. You could have said it so that he would have understood perfectly.”

“I wouldn’t have hurt his feelings for worlds!”