d made their appearance what
time I had got Iris out of the sea at East London, and we had often
laughed over it together, and the figure I must have cut. Then old
Stacey came up and seconded the invite so heartily that Beryl gave way.
But Brian was as adamant. He wanted to get back, for several reasons,
he said. Beryl and I knew more than one of them at any rate. As a
matter of fact, Brian was a bit of a misogynist. He detested fooling
around among a pack of women, he used to say; and the Stacey girls he
held in particular aversion, which was ungrateful of him, as they
happened to cherish a scarcely disguised admiration for his
unappreciative self. So George and poor little Iris were carried
summarily off, greatly to the disgust of the latter.

We who remained made ourselves festive enough. Old Stacey, though
somewhat shaky over his aspirates, was not half a bad old sort, and the
girls showed to far the best advantage in their own home. They made
themselves exceedingly pleasant to Beryl and myself, and if they had a
way of bracketing us together, so to say, it was by no means displeasing
to me, for I had got into a way myself of feeling a sort of proprietary
right in her, when we were among other people. If she noticed this,
assuredly she could not have resented it; at times I would even let
myself think she unconsciously reciprocated it. She would often refer
to me upon some debated matter, for instance, as if mine was the opinion
which rendered it final.

We took leave of our entertainers a couple of hours before sundown, in
great good humour with ourselves and all the world. A misgiving had at
one time seized me lest Trask should inflict himself upon us, as at any
rate part of our way lay together, but he had taken himself off much
earlier--and now we were alone. Not a soul was in sight, not even a
house. The undulation of the veldt, green and gold in the westering
sun, stretching away on either side, was as if deserted by man. Not by
animate Nature, though. A troop of monkeys skipped across our path,
momentarily scaring our horses, and chattering at us from the tree-tops;
and bird voices were never still. Several blue cranes were shambling
along just off our way, and the incessant cooing of doves, near and far,
blended melodiously with the fair and peaceful evening scene.

Yes, the happiness and peace of the day were upon me, as if this fair
scene were an earnest of the happiness and peace which h