“So we were, but we fell out.”
“Has Paddy gone alone, then?”
“Yes. She said she’d rather swim across than have to go in the same boat with me.” And he smiled at the recollection.
Eileen smiled vaguely also, but she was not listening very attentively, so she was not quite sure what she was smiling at. She had unconsciously slipped into her old attitude again, and, chin in hand, was gazing out to sea.
Jack, having thrown himself down beside her, pulled at the heather in silence, watching her secretly. “What do you think about when you sit here by yourself?” he asked suddenly. “It seems as if it must be so awfully slow.”
“Oh, no, it isn’t at all slow,” she answered simply.
“But what do you think about?” he reiterated.
“I don’t think I could explain,” slowly, “except that it’s just everything.”
There was a short silence, then he said:
“You and Paddy are very different, aren’t you?” And she smiled as she answered in the affirmative.