‘Oh, Mr. Jasper, I am so ashamed of my naughtiness. I assure you I nearly cried. Bab—I mean Barbara—would never have forgotten. She remembers everything. Her head is a perfect store-closet, where all things are in place and measured and weighed and on their proper shelves. You had no dinner yesterday.’ ‘To-day’s is a banquet that makes up for all deficiencies.’ Eve liked Jasper; she had few to converse with, very few acquaintances, no friends, and she was delighted to be able to have a chat with anyone, especially if that person flattered her—and who did not? Everyone naturally offered incense before her; she almost demanded it as a right. The Tamar formed a little bay under a wall of rock. A few ruins marked the site of the storehouses and boatsheds of the abbots. The sun glittered on the water, forming of it a blazing mirror, and the dancing light was reflected back by the flower-wreathed rocks. ‘Where are the men?’ asked Eve. ‘Gone into the wood to fell some pines. We must drive piles into the bed of the river, and lay beams on them for a basement.’ ‘Oh,’ said Eve listlessly, ‘I don’t understand about basements and all that.’ She seated herself on a log. ‘How pleasant it is here with the flicker of the water in one’s face and eyes, and a sense of being without shadow! Mr. Jasper, do you believe in pixies?’ ‘What do you mean, Miss?’ ‘The little imps who live in the mines and on the moors, and play mischievous tricks on mortals. They have the nature of spirits, and yet they have human shapes, and are like old men or boys. They watch treasures and veins of ore, and when mortals approach the metal, they decoy the trespassers away.’ ‘Like the lapwing that pretends to be wounded, and so lures you from its precious eggs. Do _you_ believe in pixies?’ Eve laughed and shook her pretty head. ‘I think so, Mr. Jasper, for I have seen one.’ ‘What was he like?’ ‘I do not know, I only caught glimpses of him. Do not laugh satirically. I am serious. I did see something, but I don’t know exactly what I saw.’ ‘That is not a very convincing reason for the existence of pixies.’ Eve drew her little feet together, and folded her arms in her lap, and smiled, and tossed her head. She had taken off her hat, and the sun glorified her shining head. Jasper looked admiringly at her. ‘Are you not afraid of a sunstroke, Miss Eve?’