d been
wrecked. Trucks clanged and shunted, great lorries rumbled smoothly by.
Sea--and Air-planes were moving like great birds far up in the bright
haze, and khaki was everywhere. But it was the sea Noel wanted. She made
her way westward to a little beach; and, sitting down on a stone, opened
her arms to catch the sun on her face and chest. The tide was nearly
up, with the wavelets of a blue bright sea. The great fact, the greatest
fact in the world, except the sun; vast and free, making everything
human seem small and transitory! It did her good, like a tranquillising
friend. The sea might be cruel and terrible, awful things it could do,
and awful things were being done on it; but its wide level line, its
never-ending song, its sane savour, were the best medicine she could
possibly have taken. She rubbed the Shelly sand between her fingers
in absurd ecstasy; took off her shoes and stockings, paddled, and sat
drying her legs in the sun.

When she left the little beach, she felt as if someone had said to her:

'Your troubles are very little. There's the sun, the sea, the air; enjoy
them. They can't take those from you.'

At the hospital she had to wait half an hour in a little bare room
before George came.

"Nollie! Splendid. I've got an hour. Let's get out of this cemetery.
We'll have time for a good stretch on the tops. Jolly of you to have
come to me. Tell us all about it."

When she had finished, he squeezed her arm. 348

"I knew it wouldn't do. Your Dad forgot that he's a public figure, and
must expect to be damned accordingly. But though you've cut and run,
he'll resign all the same, Nollie."

"Oh, no!" cried Noel.

George shook his head.

"Yes, he'll resign, you'll see, he's got no worldly sense; not a grain."

"Then I shall have spoiled his life, just as if--oh, no!"

"Let's sit down here. I must be back at eleven."

They sat down on a bench, where the green cliff stretched out before
them, over a sea quite clear of haze, far down and very blue.

"Why should he resign," cried Noel again, "now that I've gone? He'll be
lost without it all."

George smiled.

"Found, my dear. He'll be where he ought to be, Nollie, where the Church
is, and the Churchmen are not--in the air!"

"Don't!" cried Noel passionately.

"No, no, I'm not chaffing. There's no room on earth for saints in
authority. There's use for a saintly symbol, even if one doesn't hold
with it, but there's no mortal use for those who try