A smudge of black appeared in the woods and Maynard stood on the east bank of the river. Dinah rose and waved to him; then he ascended the stream until a place for crossing appeared. Here he leapt from stone to stone and was soon beside her. They wandered away and he found a spot presently, where the ground was dry with fallen needles from a pine above it.
"Sit here," he said, "a little while."
She had not spoken till now, save to tell him her foster-father was ill. But when they sat side by side, with the bole of the great pine behind them and its lower boughs sweeping about them to the ground, she answered all the questions he wanted to put in one swift action. For a moment she looked at him and her face glowed; and then she put her arms round his neck and kissed him.
"Dinah—d'you mean it?" he said. "Oh, d'you mean all that?"
"I want you; I can't live my life without you, Lawrence."
"After what I've told you?"
His arms were round her now and he had paid her fiercely for her kiss.
"What is marriage? I've been puzzling about it. I've been puzzling about it for years, for it seems years since you told me you was married. And if you knew what I'd been feeling, or how I fought not to kiss you at the funeral, you'd be sorry for me. But you've only been sorry for yourself I expect, you selfish man."
He did not answer. He had released her, but was still holding one of her hands.
"I'd make you a good wife, Lawrence," she said.