"The sap is stirring in the trees to-night," she said. "Can't you smell the sap and the earth?"
"I associate you with the country and green things," he answered irrelevantly. "Can you tell me, Miss Gray, how it is that I who have always seen you in London yet always think of you in fields and woods?"
She laughed with a fresh sound of mirth.
"We met long ago, Sir Robin," she said. "I have always been wondering how long it would be before you found out."
"Where?"
"Think!"
A sudden light broke over him.
"You were the little girl who came with old Lady Anne Hamilton to the Court. It is nine years ago. I never knew your name. Lady Anne died one Long Vacation when I was abroad. I did not hear of it for a long time afterwards. I asked my mother once if she knew what had become of you, but she did not. Why, to be sure, you are that little girl."
"Lady Anne was very good to me. She gave me an education. Only for her the thing I am would not be possible. And I mean to be more than that. Do you know that I am writing a book?"
"A novel? Poems?"