Helena peered at the telegram, and then with a dancing smile thrust it
into her pocket without a word.
Her mood, as they walked on, was now, it seemed, eagerly political. She
insisted on hearing his own account of his successful speech in the
House; she wished to discuss his relations with the Labour party, which
were at the moment strained, on the question of Coal Nationalization; she
asked for his views on the Austrian Treaty, and on the prospects of the
Government. He lent himself to her caprice, so long as they were walking
one behind the other through a crowded oak-wood and along a narrow path
where she could throw her questions back over her shoulder, herself well
out of reach. But presently they came out on a glorious stretch of fell,
clothed with young green fern, and running up into a purple crag fringed
with junipers. Then he sprang to her side, and Helena knew that the hour
had come and the man. There was a flat rock on the slope below the crag,
under a group of junipers, and Helena presently found herself sitting
there, peremptorily guided by her companion, and feeling dizzily that she
was beginning to lose control of the situation, as Geoffrey sank down
into the fern beside her.
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