And he made her pause at a shady corner in the road, between two oak copses on either hand--a river babbling at the foot of one of them. He put his arm round her, and stooping kissed her red lips with a kind of covetous passion. Then, still holding her, he looked out from the trees to the upper valley with its scattered villages, its chimneys and engine-houses. "It struck me--what she said of the men under our feet. They're at it now, Letty, hewing and sweating. Why are they there, and you and I here? I'm _precious_ glad, aren't you? But I'm not going to make believe that there's no difference. Don't let's he hypocrites, whatever we are." Letty was perplexed and a little troubled. He had only shown her this excitability once before--on that odd uncomfortable night when he made her sit with him on the Embankment. Whenever it came it seemed to upset her dominant impression of him. But yet it excited her too--it appealed to something undeveloped--some yearning, protecting instinct which was new to her. She suddenly put up her hand and touched his hair. "You talk so oddly, George. I think sometimes"--she laughed with a pretty gaiety--"you'll go bodily over to Lady Maxwell and her 'set' some day!" George made a contemptuous sound. "May the Lord preserve us from quacks," he said lightly. "One had better be a hypocrite. Look, little woman, there is a shower coming. Shall we turn home?" They walked home, chatting and laughing. At their own front door the butler handed George a telegram. He opened it and read: "Must come down to consult you on important business--shall arrive at Perth about 9.30.--Amelia Tressady." Letty, who was looking over George's shoulder, gave a little cry of dismay. Then, to avoid the butler's eyes and ears, they turned hurriedly into George's smoking-room which opened off the hall, and shut the door. "George! she has come to get more money out of you!" cried Letty, anger and annoyance written in every line of her little frowning face. "Well, darling, she can't get blood out of a stone!" said George, crushing the telegram in his hand and throwing it away. "It is a little too bad of my mother, I think, to spoil our honeymoon time like this. However, it can't be helped. Will you tell them to get her room ready?" CHAPTER IX