High spirits had returned to them when they stepped out of doors; and they came back to the house for luncheon in the gayest of humour, Athalie chattering away blithe as a linnet in a thorn bush, and Clive not a whit more reticent. "Hafiz is going to adore this!" exclaimed the girl. "My angel pussy!--why was I mean enough to leave you in the city!... I'll have a dog, too--a soft, roly-poly puppy, who shall grow up with a wholesome respect for Hafiz. And, Clive! I shall have a nice fat horse, a safe and sane old Dobbin--so I can poke about the countryside at my leisure, through byways and lanes and disused roads." "You need a car, too." "No, no, I really don't. Anyway," she said airily, "your car is sufficient, isn't it?" "Of course," he smiled. "I think so, too. I shall not require or desire a car unless you also are to be in it. But I'd love to possess a Dobbin and a double buckboard. Also I shall, in due time, purchase a sail-boat--" She checked herself, laughed at the sudden memory, and said with delightful malice: "I suppose you have not yet learned to sail a boat, have you?" He laughed, too: "How you scorned me for my ignorance, didn't you? Oh, but I've learned a great many things since those days, Athalie." "To sail a boat, too?" "Oh, yes. I had to learn. There's a lot of water in the world; and I've been very far afield." "I know," she said. There was a subtle sympathy in her voice,--an exquisite recognition of the lonely years which now seemed to lie far, far behind them both. She glanced down at her fresh plate which Mrs. Connor had just placed before her. "Clive!" she exclaimed, enchanted, "do you see! Peach turnovers!" "Certainly. Do you suppose this housewarming could be a proper one without peach turnovers?" And to Mrs. Connor he said: "That is all, thank you. Miss Greensleeve and I will eat our turnovers by the stove in the sun-parlour." And there they ate their peach turnovers, seated on the old-time rush-bottomed chairs beside the stove--just as they had sat so many years ago when Athalie was a child of twelve and wore a ragged cloak and hood of red. Sometimes, leisurely consuming her pastry, she glanced demurely at her lover, sometimes her blue eyes wandered to the sunny picture outside where roses grew and honeysuckle trailed and the blessed green grass enchanted the tired eyes of those who dwelt in the monstrous and arid city. Presently she went away to the room he had prepared for her; and he lay back lazily in his chair and lighted a cigarette, and watched the thin spirals of smoke mounting through the sunshine. When she returned to him she was clad in white from crown to toe, and he told her she was enchanting, which made her eyes sparkle and the dimples come. "Mrs. Connor is going to remain and help me," she said. "All my things are unpacked, and the bed is made very nicely, and it is all going to be too heavenly for words. Oh, I _wish_ you could stay!" "To-night?"