They got into the boat, and Ninian rowed them round the white cliff to Boveyhayne beach, where they left the boat and walked up the village street to the lane that led to Boveyhayne Manor.
"Henry wants to talk about the world, Ninian!" said Gilbert as they left the beach. "We'd better have a good old gabble after dinner to-night, hadn't we?"
"It doesn't matter what I say," said Ninian, "you'll gabble anyhow. Anything to keep him from reading his blooming play to me!" he added, turning to Henry.
5
He had a sense of disappointment when he met Mary. In his reaction from Sheila Morgan, he had imagined Mary coming to greet him with something of the alert youthfulness with which she had met him when he first visited Boveyhayne, but when she came into the hall, a book in her hand, he felt that there was some stiffness in her manner, a self-consciousness which had not been there before.
"How do you do?" she said, offering her hand to him like any well-bred girl.
She did not call him "Quinny" or show in her manner or speech that he was particularly welcome to her.
"I suppose," he thought to himself, "she's cross because I didn't answer her letter!"
He resolved that he would bring her back to her old friendliness....
"I expect you're tired," she said. "We'll have tea in a minute or two. Mother's lying down. She's not very well!"