pace at the edge of the forest they saw Helen still
sitting on the tree-trunk, her dress showing very white in the sun,
with Hirst still propped on his elbow by her side. They stopped
instinctively. At the sight of other people they could not go on. They
stood hand in hand for a minute or two in silence. They could not bear
to face other people.

"But we must go on," Rachel insisted at last, in the curious dull tone
of voice in which they had both been speaking, and with a great effort
they forced themselves to cover the short distance which lay between
them and the pair sitting on the tree-trunk.

As they approached, Helen turned round and looked at them. She looked at
them for some time without speaking, and when they were close to her she
said quietly:

"Did you meet Mr. Flushing? He has gone to find you. He thought you must
be lost, though I told him you weren't lost."

Hirst half turned round and threw his head back so that he looked at the
branches crossing themselves in the air above him.

"Well, was it worth the effort?" he enquired dreamily.

Hewet sat down on the grass by his side and began to fan himself.

Rachel had balanced herself near Helen on the end of the tree trunk.

"Very hot," she said.

"You look exhausted anyhow," said Hirst.

"It's fearfully close in those trees," Helen remarked, picking up her
book and shaking it free from the dried blades of grass which had fallen
between the leaves. Then they were all silent, looking at the river
swirling past in front of them between the trunks of the trees until Mr.
Flushing interrupted them. He broke out of the trees a hundred yards to
the left, exclaiming sharply:

"Ah, so you found the way after all. But it's late--much later than we
arranged, Hewet."

He was slightly annoyed, and in his capacity as leader of the
expedition, inclined to be dictatorial. He spoke quickly, using
curiously sharp, meaningless words.

"Being late wouldn't matter normally, of course," he said, "but when
it's a question of keeping the men up to time--"

He gathered them together and made them come down to the river-bank,
where the boat was waiting to row them out to the steamer.

The heat of the day was going down, and over their cups of tea the
Flushings tended to become communicative. It seemed to Terence as he
listened to them talking, that existence now went on in two different
layers. Here were the Flushings talking, talking somewhere high up in
the air ab