He held her face a moment, looking into the depths of her dark eyes. Now he forgot to be amused at himself or even gratified. If he was not as a boy-lover, it was not because he advanced with less ardour, but that he advanced with more knowledge; not because he abandoned himself less, but that he knew to what the self-abandonment was. She walked along with a free swing under her short cloth skirt; evidently she could walk thus for many a mile with no slackening and no fatigue. The wind had caught her hair, and blew it from under, and round about, and even over the flat cap of red that she wore; her eyes gazed and glowed and cried joy to him. There under the majestic spread of sky, amid the exhilaration of the salt-tasting air, on the green swell of the land, by the green and blue and white of the sea, she was an intoxication. Grantley breathed quickly as he walked with her hand on his wrist. "It's so new," she whispered in a joyful apology. "I've never been in love before. You have! Oh, of course you have! I don't mind that--not now. I used to before--before you told me. I used to be very jealous! I couldn't be jealous now--except of not being allowed to love you enough." "When I'm with you I've never been in love before." "I don't believe you ever have--not really. I don't believe you could--without me to help you!" She laughed at her boast as she made it, drumming her fingers lightly on his arm; his blood seemed to register each separate touch with a beat for each. "When we're married, Grantley, you shall give me a horse, such a good horse, such a fast horse--as good and as fast as dear old Rollo. And we'll ride--we'll ride together--oh, so far and so fast, against the wind, right against it breathlessly! We'll mark the setting sun, and we'll ride straight for it, never stopping, never turning. We'll ride straight into the gold, both of us together, and let the gold swallow us up!" "A bizarre ending for a respectable West End couple!" "No ending! We'll do it every day!" She turned to him suddenly, saying, "Ride now. You mount--I'll get up behind you." "What? You'll be horribly uncomfortable!" "Who's thinking of comfort? Rollo can carry us easily. Mount, Grantley, mount! Don't go straight home. Ride along the cliff. Come, mount, mount!" She was not to be denied. When he was mounted she set her foot lightly on his, and he helped her up. "My arm round your waist!" she cried. "Why, I'm splendid here! Gallop, Grantley, gallop! Think somebody's pursuing us and trying to take me away!" "Must poor Rollo drop down dead?" "No, but we'll pretend he will!"