The next morning they started at the usual hour for their ride, but the sky was cloudy, and, as they were leaving the park, spots of rain fell. It was not by the lodge gates that they usually set forth; more convenient for their purpose was a postern in the wall which enclosed the greater part of Rivenoak; the approach to it was from the back of the house, across a paddock, and through a birch copse, where stood an old summer-house, now rarely entered. Constance, with her own key, had just unlocked the door in the wall; she paused and glanced cloudward.
"I think it'll be a shower," said Lashmar. "Suppose we shelter in the summer-house."
They did so, and stood talking under the roof of mossy tiles.
"What have you worked at this morning?" asked Constance.
"Nothing particular. I've been thinking."
"I wish you would try to tell me how you worked out your bio-sociology. You must have had a great deal of trouble to get together your scientific proofs and illustrations."
"A good deal, of course," answered Dyce modestly. "I had read for years, all sorts of scientific and historical books."
"I rather wonder you didn't write a book of your own. Evidently you have all the material for one. Don't you think it might be well?"
"We have spoken of that, you know," was Dyce's careless reply. "I prefer oral teaching."
"Still, a solid book, such a one as you could easily write, would do you a great deal of good. Do think about it, will you?"