He heard a stirring beside him. Her eyes were open, quite near to his and shining with friendliness.
“What’s the matter? We’ve both gone silent.”
“I thought you were tired, so I didn’t disturb you.”
“Tired! Perhaps I was. But I’m all right now. Isn’t it magic with all the stars, and the mist and the being away from every one? Don’t you want to smoke? Here, I’ll hold the wheel while you light a cigarette. Yes, I know how.”
She leant across him to do it, her shoulder resting against his arm. The wind of their going fluttered her hair against his cheek. For a moment he was possessed with a mad longing to crush her to him.
“Haven’t you a match?”
She seemed utterly unconscious of her power to charm; yet instinctively she used it.
“All right?” she asked. “I wonder whether you’d mind——” Her finger went up to her mouth and her gray eyes coaxed him.
“I shouldn’t mind anything.”
She shook her head emphatically. “No. I won’t do it. People remember first impressions. You’d think me fast.”