e out of bait, or she would lose one of the beaded rings on her float,
all being things which she had no compunction in borrowing from
Perigal, inasmuch as he always came to her when he wanted anything
himself. It must also be admitted that, as the days flew by, their
excuses for meeting became gradually more slender, till at last they
would neglect their rods to talk together for quite a long time upon
any and every subject under the sun, save fishing.

Once or twice, when owing to Perigal's not making an appearance, Mavis
spent the evening alone, she would feel keenly disappointed, and would
go home with a strong sense of the emptiness of life.

During her day at the office, or when in her lodgings, she was either
absent-minded or self-conscious; she was always longing to get away
with only her thoughts for company. She would sometimes sigh for
apparently no reason at all. Then Miss Toombs lent her a volume of
Shelley, the love passages in which Mavis eagerly devoured. Her
favourite time for reading was in bed. She marked, to read and reread,
favourite passages. Often in the midst of these she would leave off,
when her mind would pursue a train of thought inspired by a phrase or
thought of the poet. Very soon she had learned 'Love's Philosophy' by
heart. The next symptom of the ailment from which she was suffering was
a dreamy languor (frequently punctuated by sighs), which disposed her
to offer passionate resentment to all forms of physical and mental
effort. This mood was not a little encouraged by the fact of the hay
now lying on the ground, to the scent of which she was always
emotionally susceptible.

Perigal renounced fishing at the same time as did Mavis. He had a fine
instinct for discovering her whereabouts in the meadows bordering the
river.

For some while, she had no hesitation in suffering herself to cultivate
his friendship. If she had any doubts of the wisdom of the proceeding,
there were always two ample justifications at hand.

The first of these was that her association with him had effected a
considerable improvement in his demeanour. He was no longer the
mentally down-at-heel, soured man that he had been when Mavis first met
him. He had taken on a lightness of heart, which, with his slim, boyish
beauty, was very attractive to Mavis, starved as she had been of all
association with men of her own age and social position. She believed
that the beneficent influence she exercised justified the hour