第23章

Silence, then, until her awed whisper:

"What?"

And his floating down, dying away:

"CAVE!"

What had stirred--some window opened? Cautiously he spied along the face of the dim house.There was no light anywhere, nor any shifting blur of white at her window below.All was dark, remote--still sweet with the scent of something jolly.And then he saw what that something was.All over the wall below his window white jessamine was in flower--stars, not only in the sky.Perhaps the sky was really a field of white flowers; and God walked there, and plucked the stars....

The next morning there was a letter on his plate when he came down to breakfast.He couldn't open it with Sylvia on one side of him, and old Tingle on the other.Then with a sort of anger he did open it.He need not have been afraid.It was written so that anyone might have read; it told of a climb, of bad weather, said they were coming home.Was he relieved, disturbed, pleased at their coming back, or only uneasily ashamed? She had not got his second letter yet.He could feel old Tingle looking round at him with those queer sharp twinkling eyes of hers, and Sylvia regarding him quite frankly.And conscious that he was growing red, he said to himself: 'I won't!' And did not.In three days they would be at Oxford.Would they come on here at once? Old Tingle was speaking.

He heard Sylvia answer: "No, I don't like 'bopsies.' They're so hard!" It was their old name for high cheekbones.Sylvia certainly had none, her cheeks went softly up to her eyes.

"Do you, Mark?"

He said slowly:

"On some people."

"People who have them are strong-willed, aren't they?"Was SHE--Anna--strong-willed? It came to him that he did not know at all what she was.

When breakfast was over and he had got away to his old greenhouse, he had a strange, unhappy time.He was a beast, he had not been thinking of her half enough! He took the letter out, and frowned at it horribly.Why could he not feel more? What was the matter with him? Why was he such a brute--not to be thinking of her day and night? For long he stood, disconsolate, in the little dark greenhouse among the images of his beasts, the letter in his hand.

He stole out presently, and got down to the river unobserved.

Comforting--that crisp, gentle sound of water; ever so comforting to sit on a stone, very still, and wait for things to happen round you.You lost yourself that way, just became branches, and stones, and water, and birds, and sky.You did not feel such a beast.

Gordy would never understand why he did not care for fishing--one thing trying to catch another--instead of watching and understanding what things were.You never got to the end of looking into water, or grass or fern; always something queer and new.It was like that, too, with yourself, if you sat down and looked properly--most awfully interesting to see things working in your mind.

A soft rain had begun to fall, hissing gently on the leaves, but he had still a boy's love of getting wet, and stayed where he was, on the stone.Some people saw fairies in woods and down in water, or said they did; that did not seem to him much fun.What was really interesting was noticing that each thing was different from every other thing, and what made it so; you must see that before you could draw or model decently.It was fascinating to see your creatures coming out with shapes of their very own; they did that without your understanding how.But this vacation he was no good--couldn't draw or model a bit!

A jay had settled about forty yards away, and remained in full view, attending to his many-coloured feathers.Of all things, birds were the most fascinating! He watched it a long time, and when it flew on, followed it over the high wall up into the park.

He heard the lunch-bell ring in the far distance, but did not go in.So long as he was out there in the soft rain with the birds and trees and other creatures, he was free from that unhappy feeling of the morning.He did not go back till nearly seven, properly wet through, and very hungry.

All through dinner he noticed that Sylvia seemed to be watching him, as if wanting to ask him something.She looked very soft in her white frock, open at the neck; and her hair almost the colour of special moonlight, so goldy-pale; and he wanted her to understand that it wasn't a bit because of her that he had been out alone all day.After dinner, when they were getting the table ready to play 'red nines,' he did murmur:

"Did you sleep last night--after?"

She nodded fervently to that.

It was raining really hard now, swishing and dripping out in the darkness, and he whispered:

"Our stars would be drowned to-night."

"Do you really think we have stars?"

"We might.But mine's safe, of course; your hair IS jolly, Sylvia."She gazed at him, very sweet and surprised.