“That and there being no footle about marriage,” concluded Eileen.
4
A third factor that had contributed to the perfection of that complete understanding was not realized by either until they were descending the hill into Bisham.
“I rather wish we weren’t going back,” said Eileen. “Let’s stop a moment. I want to talk. We’ve never thought of what we’re going to do.”
“Do?” said Jasper, as he dismounted. “Well, we’ve just got to make an announcement and that’s the end of it. The Jenkyns lot have all gone.”
“It isn’t the end, it’s the beginning,” replied Eileen. “Don’t you see that we can’t even explain?”
“We sha’n’t try.”
“We shall. We shall have to—in a way. It’ll take years and years to do it. But the point is that they won’t understand, now, none of them, not even Elsie Durham. We aren’t free any longer.”
“We aren’t alone,” she added, bringing the hitherto unacknowledged factor into prominence.