r, and how, in her own
fashion, she had tried to smooth those looks away, and now he had
returned with a new expression on his face. It was that, she thought, of
a man who, knowing misery like a great block in his path, had ridden
over it and not looked back. She knew what Rupert meant by saying he was
different, and again she felt a strong dislike for all his experiences
which she had not shared.

On the evening after his visit, the Canipers and Daniel went to the
trysting place. Helen wrapped herself in a shawl and lay down with her
head on her arms and one eye for the clouds, but she did not listen to
the talk, and she had no definite thoughts. The voices of Rupert and
Daniel were like the buzzing of bees, a sound of warmth and summer, and
the smell of their tobacco came and went on the wind. She was aware that
John, having smoked for a time and disagreed with everything that was
said, had walked off towards the road, and the succeeding peace was
proof that Miriam too, had disappeared.

Helen rolled on her back and went floating with the clouds. While she
merely watched them, she thought they kept a level course, but to go
with them was like riding on a swollen sea, and as she rose and fell in
slow and splendid curves, she discovered differences of colour and
quality in a medium which seemed invariable from below. She swooped
downwards like a bird on steady wings and saw the moor lifting itself
towards her until she anticipated a shock; she was carried upwards
through a blue that strained to keep its colour, yet wearied into a
pallor which almost let out the stars. She saw the eye of a hawk as its
victims knew it, and for a time she kept pace with a lark and saw the
music in his throat before he uttered it. Joy escaped her in a little
sound, and then she felt that the earth was solid under her.

Daniel and Rupert were still discussing the great things which did not
matter, and idly she marvelled at their capacity for argument and
quarrel; but she realized that for Rupert, at least, this was a sport
equivalent to her game of sailing with the clouds, and when she turned
to look at him, she saw him leaning against his heather bush, wearing
the expression most annoying to an antagonist, and flicking broken
heather stalks at Daniel's angular and monumental knees.

"You talk of the mind," Rupert said, "as though it were the stomach."

"I do," Daniel said heavily.

"And your stomach at that! Bulk and fat foods--"

"