‘I’m so glad I came away,’ she said, smiling up at him; and she very nearly added, as she looked at him and saw him such a part of the morning, and of the fresh sea and the clear light, so bright-haired and young-limbed, ‘I do love you, Christopher——’ but was afraid he would misunderstand. Which he certainly would have.
They arranged, before they turned back, that he should drive her up to London that afternoon. Her luggage could be sent by train. It seemed silly, he said, to stay till Monday when she didn’t want to, and Virginia didn’t want her to, and nobody wanted her to, while in London there were her friends, all wanting her——
‘One friend,’ she smiled.
‘Well, one friend is enough to change the world.’
‘Oh yes,’ she agreed, her eyes shining.
Still, it would be difficult, she said. Virginia would be astonished at the motor-cycle——
‘She knows all about that by now,’ said Christopher. ‘You bet the old lady has told her about it long ago. Rushed straight round on purpose.’
Well then, in that case, on the principle of being hung for a whole sheep while one was about it, Catherine thought she might as well drive up with him that day. Especially——
‘Now don’t say especially at our ages.’
‘I wasn’t going to. I was going to say, especially as it will make everybody happy all round.’