"I think," he said, "probably, before the end of the day."
The day was drawing to its end when the group drifted and divided. Brodrick, still imperturbable, took possession of Jane, and Prothero, with his long swinging stride, set off in pursuit of the darting Laura.
Tanqueray, thus left behind with Nina, watched him as he went.
"He's off, Nina. Bolted." His eyes smiled at her, suave, deprecating, delighted eyes and recklessly observant.
"So has Jane," said Nina, with her dangerous irony.
Apart from them and from their irony, Prothero was at last alone with Laura on the top of Wendover Hill. She had ceased to dart and to plunge.
He found for her a hidden place on the green slope, under a tree, and there he stretched himself at her side.
"Do you know," he said, "this is the first time I've seen you out of doors."
"So it is," said she in a strange, even voice.
She drew off her gloves and held out the palms of her hands as if she were bathing them in the pure air. Her face was turned from him and lifted; her nostrils widened; her lips parted; her small breasts heaved; she drank the air like water. To his eyes she was the white image of mortal thirst.