ch picture?"

"Round you come!"

I crawled to her side with a sigh. On she went at a wonderful
pace. Old elms rose up in the background, a splash of red and brown
resolved itself into a sunny farm, and four pieces which Berry had
recognized as water went to make up a sheltered haystack. When it was
nearly finished, she leaned across me and looked at my wrist-watch.

"I'll just have time," she whispered half to herself.

"Only just?"

"Only just. Did you speak?"

"Yes, I did. I said 'Damn!' And I'll say it again."

She leaned on my shoulder and laughed for a second. Then:

"I'm sure you wouldn't find that in the Rubaiyat."

"Perhaps Thou didn't have to be back in time for dinner."

She fell to work again, but I could see she was smiling. The loose
pieces left were very few now. A tuft of grass fell into place, a wisp
of smoke stole out of the farmhouse chimney, a quick-set hedge sprang
up in the distance, landscape and sky merged on the horizon, and the
thing was done.

She sat back on her heels and regarded it for a moment. Then she
slipped sideways on to the lawn, smoothed down her frock, and looked at
me.

"Not bad, is it?" she said.

"It's sweet!"

"You ought to see the original."

"I have. That's why I love it. I shall have it framed and keep it in
memory of this private view."

"Sentiment, with a vengeance."

"What if it is, Girl Blue?"

For answer, she began to pull on her gloves. I watched her in
silence. When they were both on, she rose, and so did I.

"I'll go as I came," she said. "Don't come with me to the gate."

I bowed. She put out her hand. I bent over it.

"Good-bye," I said.

"Good-bye, and--and thanks for--"

"For what, Girl Blue?"

"For not asking any questions."

I smiled and turned away. Then I kneeled down suddenly and kissed the
face that looked up out of the picture, the face that would have meant
nothing two hours before, the face that looked out into the clear
breeze and over the open country, the face that--

"As this is quite a private view," said the original, speaking very
slowly, "and as to-morrow you won't be able to--"

I didn't hear the rest of the sentence.

Before I had finished my second cigarette, Berry, Daphne, and Jill came
round the bank of rhododendrons.

"Why, Boy," said Jill, "have you been here all the time?"

A cry from Daphne interrupted her.

The next moment they were all down on their knees poring over my late