Gilbert tried to mock him out of his anger. "This emotion does you credit, young Quinny!" he said, "and we are touched, Ninian and I. Aren't we, Ninian! But you must be a man, Quinny! Four years hence, we shall all meet in London, _Deo volente_, and we'll be able to compare the education of Ireland with the education of England. Oh, Lordy God, I sometimes wish we hadn't got minds at all. I think it must be lovely to be a cow ... nothing to do but chew the damned cud all day. No soul to consider, no mind to improve, no anything!..." Gilbert and he left Boveyhayne together, but Gilbert was only going as far as Templecombe with him, where he was to change on his way to Cheltenham. Ninian and Mary saw them off at Whitcombe, and when he remembered the circumstances in which she had seen him off before, Henry had a longing to take hold of her arm and lead her to the end of the platform, as he had done then, and tell her that he was sorry for everything and beg her to start again where they had left off that day ... but Gilbert was there and Ninian was there, and there was no opportunity, and the train went off, leaving the explanation unmade. 9 "Good-bye, Quinny!" Gilbert said at Templecombe. "Good-bye, Gilbert!" Henry answered in a low tone. "I suppose you'll write to me some day?" "I suppose so. Yes, of course!..." "Ripping day, isn't it? Shame to be wasting it in a blooming train!" "Yes!" He wished that the train would break down so that he need not part from Gilbert yet, but while he was wishing, it began to move. Gilbert stood back from the carriage and waved his hand to him, and Henry leant with his head through the window of his carriage, smiling.... "Damn Trinity," he said, sitting back in his seat, and letting depression envelop him. "Damn and blast Trinity!..." THE SECOND BOOK OF CHANGING WINDS I write of Youth, of Love, and have Accesse By these, to sing of cleanly-Wantonnesse. HERRICK. THE FIRST CHAPTER 1