‘No. I have learnt that my duty lies nearer home.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I wish this summer, for the first time in my life, to try and do some good—to examine a little into the real condition of English working men.’
‘I am afraid, Mr. Smith, that I did not teach you that duty.’
‘Oh, you have taught me priceless things! You have taught me beauty is the sacrament of heaven, and love its gate; that that which is the most luscious is also the most pure.’
‘But I never spoke a word to you on such subjects.’
‘There are those, Miss Lavington, to whom a human face can speak truths too deep for books.’
Argemone was silent; but she understood him. Why did she not withdraw her arm a second time?
In a moment more the colonel hailed them from the dog-cart and behind him came the britschka with a relay of servants.
They parted with a long, lingering pressure of the hand, which haunted her young palm all night in dreams. Argemone got into the carriage, Lancelot jumped into the dog-cart, took the reins, and relieved his heart by galloping Sandy up the hill, and frightening the returning coachman down one bank and his led horses up the other.