She looked silently into his eyes, then with a little sigh dropped her
head on his knees again.
Far away somewhere in the depths of the house somebody was moving. And
presently she asked him who it was.
"Connor, the man of all work. I sent him to Spring Pond village to
buy bed linen and bath towels. I ventured to install a brass bed or
two in case you had thought of coming here with your maid. You see,"
he added, smiling, "it was fortunate that I did."
"You are the most wonderful man in the world, Clive," she murmured,
her eyes fixed dreamily on his face. "Always you have been making life
delightful for me; smoothing my path, helping me where the road is
rough."... She sighed: "Clive, you are very wonderful to me."
* * * * *
Mrs. Jim Connor had come to help; and now, at high noon, she sought
them where they were standing in the garden,--Athalie in ecstasy
before the scented thickets of old-fashioned rockets massed in a long,
broad border against a background of trees.
So they went in to luncheon, which was more of a dinner; and Mrs.
Connor served them with apology, bustle, and not too garrulously for
the humour they were in.
High spirits had returned to them when they stepped out of doors; and
they came back to the house for luncheon in the gayest of humour,
Athalie chattering away blithe as a linnet in a thorn bush, and Clive
not a whit more reticent.
"Hafiz is going to adore this!" exclaimed the girl. "My angel
pussy!--why was I mean enough to leave you in the city!... I'll have a
dog, too--a soft, roly-poly puppy, who shall grow up with a wholesome
respect for Hafiz. And, Clive! I shall have a nice fat horse, a safe
and sane old Dobbin--so I can poke about the countryside at my
leisure, through byways and lanes and disused roads."
"You need a car, too."
"No, no, I really don't. Anyway," she said airily, "your car is
sufficient, isn't it?"
"Of course," he smiled.
"I think so, too. I shall not require or desire a car unless you also
are to be in it. But I'd love to possess a Dobbin and a double
buckboard. Also I shall, in due time, purchase a sail-boat--" She
checked herself, laughed at the sudden memory, and said with
delightful malice: "I suppose you have not yet learned to sail a boat,
have you?"