"Dear me, no. Could anybody be afraid here?"
"Poor Colin's pretty jumpy still. That's why I have to be near him."
"I see."
"You won't mind having him with us, will you?"
"I shall love having him. Always. I hope he won't mind me."
"He'll adore you, of course."
"Now show me the garden."
They went out on to the green terraces where the peacocks spread their great tails of yew. Maisie loved the peacocks and the clipped yew walls and the goldfish pond and the flower garden.
He walked quickly, afraid to linger, afraid of having to talk to her. He felt as if the least thing she said would be charged with some unendurable emotion and that at any minute he might be called on to respond. To be sure this was not like what he knew of Maisie; but, everything having changed for him, he felt that at any minute Maisie might begin to be unlike herself.
She was out of breath. She put her hand on his arm. "Don't go so fast,
Jerry. I want to look and look."