She rose and crossed over to him.
'I must run away,' she said softly. She leant down towards him. 'Is it a great change?' she asked.
'Tremendous—as tremendous as its philosophy.' He was serious under the banter. She was encouraged to her last venture, which he might have laughed back into retreat.
'It isn't really any change to me,' she told him in a voice that trembled a little. 'You've always been all right to me. This has always been a refuge and a hospitable home to me. If it had all failed, I should have loved you still, Airey, my friend.'
Airey was silent again for an instant.
'Thank God, I think I can believe you in that,' he said at last.
She waited a moment longer, caressing his hand gently.
'And you'll go soon?' she whispered. 'You'll go to her soon?'
'This very night, my dear,' said Airey Newton.
Peggy stood upright. Again the sun's rays caught her eyes and hair, and flashed on her hands as she stretched them out in an ample luxury of joy.