“Surprised?”
“I know you have been down here since Wednesday.”
“You knew it! Then why didn’t you come and see me? You are very inattentive.”
“I knew you would send if you wanted me.” Now he looked at her with surprised, almost grudging admiration. “Your change has agreed with you; you look thundering well.”
“Thundering! What an absurdly incongruous word. Never mind, I always knew you were no stylist. Yes, I am quite well, although from morning till night I did almost everything you told me not to do. I was in a whirl of excitement, tiring and overtiring myself all the time.”
“I suppose I was wrong then. It seems you need excitement.” He spoke with less interest than he usually gave to her, almost perfunctorily, but she noticed no difference and went on:
“The fact is I have found the elixir of life. There is such a thing, the old necromancers knew more than we. The elixir is happiness.”
“You have been so happy?”
She leaned back in her chair, her eyes sought not him but the horizon. The window was open and the air was scented with the coming summer, with the fecund beauty of growing things.
“So happy,” she repeated. “Incredibly happy. And only on the threshold....” Then she looked away from the sky and toward him, smiled.