n relations to one another, swept in upon them both.
For a moment the sense of the great burden she was carrying fell from
Catherine's shoulders. She was back in a simpler world. Julian was no
longer a leader of the people, the brilliant sociologist, the apostle of
her creed. He was the man who during the last few weeks had monopolised
her thoughts to an amazing extent, the man for whose aid and protection
she had hastened, the man to whom she was perfectly content to entrust
the setting right of this ghastly blunder. Watching him, she suddenly
felt that she was tired of it all, that she would like to creep away
from the storm and rest somewhere. The quiet and his presence seemed to
soothe her. Her tense expression relaxed, her eyes became softer. She
smiled at him gratefully.

"Oh, I cannot tell you," she exclaimed, "how glad I am to be with you
just now! Everything in the outside world seems so terrible. Do you
mind--it is so silly, but after all a woman cannot be as strong as
a man, can she?--would you mind very much just holding my hand for a
moment and staying here quite quietly. I have had a horrible evening,
and when I came in, my head felt as though it would burst. You do not
mind?"

Julian smiled as he leaned towards her. A kind of resentment of which
he had been conscious, even though in some measure ashamed of it,
resentment at her unswerving loyalty to the task she had set herself,
melted away. He suddenly knew why he had kissed her, on that sunny
morning on the marshes, an ecstatic and incomprehensible moment which
had seemed sometimes, during these days of excitement, as though it had
belonged to another life and another world. He took both her hands in
his, and, stooping down, kissed her on the lips.

"Dear Catherine," he said, "I am so glad that you came to me. I think
that during these last few days we have forgotten to be human, and it
might help us--for after all, you know, we are engaged!"

"But that," she whispered, "was only for my sake."

"At first, perhaps," he admitted, "but now for mine."

Her little sigh of content, as she stole nearer to him, was purely
feminine. The moments ticked on in restful and wonderful silence. Then,
unwillingly, she drew away from his protecting arm.

"My dear," she said, "you look so nice as you are, and it is such
happiness to be here, but there is a great task before us."

"You are right," he declared, straightening himself. "Wait for a few
minutes, dear.