A minute later she entered the house, while Alec unabashed by her shy denial went whistling and cutting solitary capers across the darkening moor. But the thrill of the boy’s touch remained with the girl, and the shameless young pagan look he had given her took its place also in her dreams.

CHAPTER THREE

I

For in town Joanna led almost wholly a dream-life. The indoor existence, the hard streets which she hated though they made a good playground, the petty boredom of school, and the growing disharmony at home, all drove her in upon herself. In two respects only was the child’s being vivid – in the activity of her body, and in her dreams.

At twelve she was the reckless rider – a menace to foot-passengers – of a maimed tricycle horse which had once been dappled, and fiery of nostril. And when nursery shows were got up, with Sholto as “Handy-Andy,” and Linnet as the performer of transparent conjuring tricks, Joanna, dressed in tights suspiciously recalling woven underwear, always performed upon the trapeze.

But what satisfied her most deeply was climbing. Climbing involved a mental and physical equilibrium which was a delight. She welcomed the cool excitement that possessed her in dangerous places, up high trees and on the windy edges of roofs. She learned to walk steadily, balancing with her arms along the top of a narrow paling, and knew how to trust only half her weight to a weak foothold, passing in a swift, predetermined rhythm to one more secure. At such moments she was the queen of her own body, and not of her body alone, but of a whole system of laws she could not even begin to formulate.