To Archie's intense irritation she continued to talk about little fishes, in a tone of great interest, till Harry's entrance. She agreed they were very good; probably they were fresh sardines caught last night by the fishers. Or were they... and she could not remember the Italian name of the other little fish which were so like sardines. Archie's serene brow clouded, and he but grunted a greeting to Harry. And next moment her heart smote her. She knew how easily Archie could put the sun out for her without meaning to do it, but she had, out of a sort of piqued femininity, intentionally done the same for him. She felt as if she had spoiled a child's pleasure. He was so like a child, but lovers were made of child-stuff. He got up almost immediately, and, full of a tender penitence, she followed him. One behind the other they went out into the garden, where Archie, in a superb unconsciousness of her presence, became instantly absorbed in the despised English papers. "Archie!" she said. He rustled with his paper. "Oh, er--what?" he answered. "I wanted to talk to you about Helena's letter," she said, "only you would talk about sardines. Put that paper down; I can't talk through the paper." She noticed that he kept his finger on a paragraph, and she would have betted her last shilling that he had no idea what that paragraph was about. And, though a moment before she had been penitent, now she stiffened herself and determined that he should meet her more gracefully than that. "I'm sorry; I'm interrupting you," she said. "I'll tell you some other time." Archie suddenly threw the paper into the air. "Oh, aren't we behaving like idiots?" he said. "At heart I am, and so are you really. But I'll confess: I'm just longing to know what Helena writes about. But aren't you an idiot, too? I shall like it enormously if you say you are." "I am an idiot, too," said the girl. "And Cousin Marion wants Helena and me to live with her till father comes home. She told me to ask you if you approved." He leaned forward to her. "Ah, do, Jessie," he said. "I hope you will. I can't see why you shouldn't. Can you?" She looked straight into the eager blue eyes that were so close to hers. For her there was a wealth of frankness and friendliness, but the light in them was not for her, and she knew it. "Helena wants to," she said. "Does that mean that you don't?" he asked. "I'm sorry if that is so." She got up. "No, it doesn't mean that a bit," she said. "It's delightful of you and Cousin Marion to want us. Of course we'll come." Archie rose too. "That's perfectly ripping of you," he said. "We shall be a jolly party, we four." Quite suddenly a pause fell, very awkwardly, very constrainedly. "You see, my father doesn't appear much," he said at length. "That's what I meant. He is very often in the country, and--well, we don't see him much."