t Christopher's worried
her.

Geoffry dismissed the whole thing most easily; he did not trouble
about Christopher's view, and he thought Patricia's a little queer,
but then to him Patricia's views were not Patricia herself. He made
the common mistake of divorcing that particular aspect of his lady
love with which he was best acquainted from the multitudinous prisms
of her womanhood. He would have allowed vaguely that she had "moods,"
that these overshadowed occasionally the sunny, beautiful girl he
loved, but no conception of her as a whole had entered his mind. He
was in love with one prism of a complex whole, or rather with one
colour of the rainbow itself.

This particular truth with regard to Geoffry's estimate of Patricia
impressed itself on Christopher with disagreeable persistency during
the walk, and renewed that nearly forgotten fear that had come to him
during the ride from Milton in the spring.

So presently he found himself watching her inner attitude towards her
accepted lover in the forbidden way, without sufficient knowledge of
what he was actually doing to stop it. Perhaps some subtle
appreciation of this in the subconscious realm, roused a like
uneasiness and dissatisfaction in Patricia herself.

At all events Christopher soon found grounds for no immediate fear and
left the future to itself.

"Shall we go on?" he suggested, marking how her hands grew white as
she pressed them together.

She negatived the proposal, imperiously saying they had only just got
there and she wanted to rest.

"You are getting lazy, Patricia," said her lover gravely. "I warn you,
it's the one unpardonable sin in my eyes."

"You mistake restlessness for energy," she retorted quickly. "I'm
never lazy. Ask Christopher."

Geoffry did no such thing. He continued to fling stones at a mark on
the lower lip of the chalk pit.

"It's fairly hard to distinguish, anyhow," said Christopher,
thoughtfully. "There are people who call Nevil lazy, whereas he isn't.
He only takes all his leisure in one draught."

"Oh, I don't know. It's simple enough, isn't it? I never feel lazy so
long as I'm doing something--moving about."

Geoffry jumped down into the little white pit as he spoke, as if to
demonstrate his remark. Patricia looked scornful.

"So long as your are restless, you mean," she said.

"Well, you must teach me better if you can. I say, Patricia, do you
always turn reproof on the reprover's head?"

He leant against t