But after all it was astonishingly easy! And when they had shaken hands firmly and were talking hard, she asked herself what she had been afraid of. It was like the jump out of the parlour window long ago – the same relief, the same slight trembling afterwards. Bob’s hair wasn’t so yellow as it used to be. In this light it was the colour of ashes. His voice was the same, though soft, almost lazy. And he still grunted funnily when he laughed. His eyes – Joanna could not bring herself to look at his eyes after the first encounter. She looked instead at his hair, at her own hands, at the fern-case by the window, in which her mother cherished delicate little plants. And she heard herself chattering freely about the School of Art, and asking Bob all about London.

But in the depths of her confused heart she knew it was not like old times, however hard both might pretend it was. At the very first glance something must have happened between them. Otherwise why could she not look at Bob? And why did he never for a moment stop looking at her? She wondered at herself for having imagined he would laugh at her for being grown-up. She could not now have asked him what he thought of her hair. She had caught a glimpse of her new self in his eyes, and under her chatter she felt lost and troubled. But it was a sort of happiness too, this breaking of the life in her out of the old confines.

At tea the mother’s presence was a respite. Joanna was like a child again, hiding in her mother’s skirts and peeping out from that refuge at the too persistent stranger. She tried hard to collect herself. If Bob would have spared her only for one minute. But then all of a sudden her lips curved into a smile, and from that moment she smiled uncontrollably. She would have given anything to hide her burning, smiling face. There was panic in her breast. And to recover gravity she tried to think of the saddest thing she knew. She thought of the Crown of Thorns. But it was useless, especially when Juley was questioning Bob about the Presbyterian churches in London. Only when she looked up and found herself in Bob’s waiting eyes did Joanna stop smiling, and then her breath went from her.

And after tea came prayers. Prayers at Collessie Street took place without respect of visitors, and generally Joanna resented this with bitter ennui. But to-night everything was different. She did not know what she looked for in the coming act of worship, but she felt it held something hidden for Bob and herself. Till then they would both be in suspense.