He sat between Lady Cecily and Mary at supper, but he did not talk a great deal to either of them, for Mary was chattering excitedly to Sir Geoffrey Mundane, and Cecily was persuading Ninian that engineering had always been the passion of her life. "I quite agree," she was saying, "a Channel Tunnel would be very useful and ... and so convenient, too. I've often said that to Jimphy, but dear Jimphy doesn't pretend to understand these things!" She had turned to him once and, in a whisper, had said, "Which of you is in love with Mary?" but he had pretended to be wooden and hard of understanding. "My dear Paddy," she said, raising her eyebrows, "I believe you're sulking ... just because I wouldn't run away with you. You're as bad as Gilbert!" "You're perfectly brutal," he said under his breath. "Aren't you exaggerating?" she replied. "And if I had gone off with you, we'd have missed this nice supper. Do be sociable, there's a dear Paddy, and perhaps I'll run away with you next Tuesday!" There was a babble of conversation about them, and much laughter, for Gilbert, reacting from his fright, was full of bright talk, and Sir Geoffrey, reminiscent, capped it with entertaining tales of dramatists and stage people. It was easy for Cecily and Henry to carry on their conversation in quiet tones without fear of being overheard. "You treat me like a boy," he said reproachfully. "You are a boy, Paddy dear, and a very nice boy!" "I suppose," he retorted, "it's impossible for you to understand that I love you...." "Indeed, it isn't," she interrupted. "I understand that quite easily. What I can't understand is why you wish to spoil everything by silly proposals to ... to elope!..." "But I love you," he insisted. "Isn't that enough to make you understand?" She shook her head, and turned again to Ninian. "You see," Ninian said, "you bore through this big bed of chalk from both sides...." "But how do you know the two ends will meet?" she asked. "Oh, engineers manage that sort of thing easily," Ninian answered. "Think of the Simplon Tunnel!..." "Yes!" she said, to indicate that she was thinking of it. "Well, that met, didn't it?" "Did it?" she replied. "Oh, but of course it must have met. I've been through it!..." "There was hardly an inch of divergence between the two ends," he went on.... "Hell's flames!" Henry said to himself. 5 "I must see you," he said to her when the party had broken up and she was going home. "I must see you alone!" "I do hope you're not going to be a nuisance, Paddy!" she replied. He put her cloak about her shoulders. "Will you meet me at the suspension bridge over the lake in St. James's Park to-morrow at eleven?..." "That's awfully early, Paddy, and St. James's Park is such a long way from everywhere. Couldn't you come to lunch? Jimphy'll be glad to see you. He seems to like you for some reason!" "I want to talk to you alone, and we're not likely to be disturbed in St. James's Park. You must come, Cecily!"