"Well, my dear boy, we've done you good, haven't we?"
He glanced back over his shoulder to indicate whom he had in mind—for Nina had come down but a minute before—last of all—and said, smiling: "She's a wonder."
"Isn't she? Doesn't she say the most startling things? She's a bomb made animate."
"One is always wondering what will come next," he declared. "I'm wondering it just now."
As he proposed it himself, he might very easily have foreseen it without waste of speculation. They took a long walk—the last of their series of long walks.
"And now," said lover to loved as they went at swinging pace through the park, the staghound as usual at their heels, "where do you go next?"
"Carfen," she answered. "Just beyond the border of Carlisle."
"I know them," he announced delightedly. "I'll get myself asked."
But Nina shook her head. "Don't," she adjured. "Because if you do, I'll leave."
He stopped short in his stride. "In Heaven's name, why?" he asked, his astonishment and dismay undisguised.