* * * *

Mrs. Jim Connor had come to help; and now, at high noon, she sought
them where they were standing in the garden,--Athalie in ecstasy
before the scented thickets of old-fashioned rockets massed in a long,
broad border against a background of trees.

So they went in to luncheon, which was more of a dinner; and Mrs.
Connor served them with apology, bustle, and not too garrulously for
the humour they were in.

High spirits had returned to them when they stepped out of doors; and
they came back to the house for luncheon in the gayest of humour,
Athalie chattering away blithe as a linnet in a thorn bush, and Clive
not a whit more reticent.

"Hafiz is going to adore this!" exclaimed the girl. "My angel
pussy!--why was I mean enough to leave you in the city!... I'll have a
dog, too--a soft, roly-poly puppy, who shall grow up with a wholesome
respect for Hafiz. And, Clive! I shall have a nice fat horse, a safe
and sane old Dobbin--so I can poke about the countryside at my
leisure, through byways and lanes and disused roads."

"You need a car, too."

"No, no, I really don't. Anyway," she said airily, "your car is
sufficient, isn't it?"

"Of course," he smiled.

"I think so, too. I shall not require or desire a car unless you also
are to be in it. But I'd love to possess a Dobbin and a double
buckboard. Also I shall, in due time, purchase a sail-boat--" She
checked herself, laughed at the sudden memory, and said with
delightful malice: "I suppose you have not yet learned to sail a boat,
have you?"

He laughed, too: "How you scorned me for my ignorance, didn't you? Oh,
but I've learned a great many things since those days, Athalie."

"To sail a boat, too?"

"Oh, yes. I had to learn. There's a lot of water in the world; and
I've been very far afield."

"I know," she said. There was a subtle sympathy in her voice,--an
exquisite recognition of the lonely years which now seemed to lie far,
far behind them both.

She glanced down at her fresh plate which Mrs. Connor had just placed
before her.

"Clive!" she exclaimed, enchanted, "do you see! Peach turnovers!"

"Certainly. Do you suppose this housewarming could be a proper one
without peach turnovers?" And to Mrs. Connor he said: "That is all,
thank you. Miss Greensleeve and I will eat our turnovers by the stove
in the sun-parlour."

And there they ate their peach turnovers, seated on the old-time
rush-bottomed chairs beside the stove