“I don’t know,” said Siegmund.
“There will not be very many people,” she insisted.
“I think,” he said, in a very quiet voice, “you’d better let me go by the South-Western from Portsmouth while you go on by the Brighton.”
“But why?” she exclaimed in astonishment.
“I don’t want to sit looking at you all the way,” he said.
“But why should you?” she exclaimed.
He laughed.
“Indeed, no!” she said. “We shall go together.”
“Very well,” he answered.
They walked on in silence towards the village. As they drew near the little post office, he said: