Julie looked up.
“Yes... Yes, I do,” she said. “I was only—thinking. Of course Teddy Bolitho would come—anybody would, if you asked them. And it’s heavenly playing on a grass court; there are so few in the Colony. It’ll spoil it, though.”
“I would rather it were spoilt with use than wasted,” Mrs Lawless said... “We waste so much.”
She had risen, and now, moving nearer to the girl, she laid a strong, well-shaped hand upon her shoulder.
“Don’t you make waste too,” she added gently. “I did when I was young... and it leaves me full of vain regrets. Some people think that youth is the best gift of the gods: but it is far from a perfect gift; for the proper appreciation of it is withheld. It is only when the gift is withdrawn that we realise all that it meant. If one could have one’s youth a second time, one would get the full value of the hours. You’ve got it now—that priceless gift; and you are inclined to be careless of it.”
“I wonder why you say this to me?” Julie murmured.
“Because I’ve been looking on. You say you have observed me... Interest is usually mutual. I have certainly felt interested in you.”
Julie coloured awkwardly, and looked down. She wondered whether Mrs Lawless had observed her friendship for the man whose name was the same as her own, and if she disapproved of it.
“I don’t think it altogether depends on oneself what one makes of one’s youth,” she said.
“There is much to be said for that argument,” Mrs Lawless answered. “But I could wish you had not found it out so soon.”