After a long pause she faltered:
‘I was wondering why you did not come.’
He made no answer, and they walked in silence till the end of the path was reached, and then she said, still falteringly:
‘I don’t think you ought to have come now.’
‘I know I ought not!’
They turned and began to retrace their steps, but when about mid-way up the garden she came to a standstill and looked him full in the face.
‘Go now,’ she said. ‘Go! You must not stay here any longer.’
Even in the dim light he could see that she was pale and that her figure wavered; but he gazed at her as though without realising the sense of her words.
‘Will you not leave me,’ she entreated, ‘when I ask you?’
He stood looking at her stupidly for a moment or two longer; then the meaning of her request seemed to reach his understanding.